MIT Technology Review 3/23: New Strategies for Future Water Extremes

There is no life without water – but too much can be just as deadly: failed harvests, destroyed settlements, epidemics that are rampant. It is the pictures of the dried-up Po in Italy, from the Ahr Valley in 2021, from Pakistan last summer that show: The global water balance has gotten mixed up. In the new issue of MIT Technology Review (which can now be ordered from the heise shop and will be available in train station bookshops from March 23), we not only ask how this could have happened, but also how we will deal with the extremes between “too much” and “too much” in the future Having to deal with “too little” water.

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water management in agriculture

Summers in Germany are getting drier on average. This is challenging for farmers. They need new irrigation and cultivation methods. Our author Katja Scherer has therefore researched how intelligent water management can be developed with sensors in the fields.

Smart Water

AI is also finding its way into water management: Under the keyword Smart Water, researchers and companies are propagating a new, more efficient form of water management. Artificial intelligence can, for example, help against overflowing sewers and leaking water pipes. The algorithms can help to predict floods in urban areas, for example.

Cargo ships with less draft

The influence of water levels is of course also evident in inland navigation. When rivers like the Rhine carry less water, ships have to be built differently. TR editor Gregor Honsel wrote down exactly what the concepts look like that are supposed to make freighters more suitable for low water.

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But what to do if a region in particular is affected by water shortages? The motto here is: consume less and simply waste nothing. In a report about Berlin and Brandenburg, our author Karsten Lemm describes in detail what consequences this already has today.

Other highlights of the issue

Read MIT Technology Review here:

(jl)