The Water Intelligence Project (WIP) seeks to disrupt the pipeline between water innovation and water law. Globally, dominant forms of water governance are mediated through systems of computation. Digital technologies, algorithms, and other data structures are therefore at work in governing decisions about water and natural resources, often without structures of public information and accountability.
As climate fallout worsens, technocratic modes of water control are increasing, driven in large part by increased expenditures into “water intelligence” including cloud computing, artificial intelligence (AI), and machine learning (ML). Across localities water innovation programs disrupt, exclude, and erase Indigenous knowledges and local governing structures that have long protected waterways, ecosystems, and life. The commodification and digitization of water is neither inevitable nor permanent–many of these systems were created through violent historical processes and they do not need to exist in the future.
For interest, contact: Theodora Dryer tjd@waterjustice-tech.org