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Using AI to detect hundreds of unreported sewage leaks via BBC News
Why it matters: It’s impossible to address unintended sewage leaks if you don’t know they’re happening. To better understand the scope of the problem, researchers in the UK created an AI algorithm to recognize flow patterns indicative of sewage leaks, and at two wastewater treatment plants alone they found 926 leaks over an 11-year period. “We welcome any tool that prevents pollution,” the UK Environment Agency noted in response.
Can AI and automation combat the housing crisis? via the Toronto Star
Why it matters: There’s an extreme gap between demand and supply of affordable housing in Canada. Automation and AI may help address it in economical and environmentally friendly ways. As Ramtin Attar reports: “Bringing robotics, AI and advanced manufacturing to housing construction…will create new categories of jobs, generate significantly less waste and, ultimately, add more buildings much faster...”
A power move: covering canals with solar panels via Wired
Why it matters: This simple solution could help address California’s water conservation and renewable generation needs in one swoop. Researchers found that covering 4,000 miles of California’s canals with solar panels could prevent approximately 63 billion gallons of water from evaporating while generating 13 gigawatts of energy each year. The implications for wildlife must be addressed — waterbirds need access to waterways — but the study demonstrates the kind of ambitious thinking we need.
Turning today’s CO2 into tomorrow’s building materials via World Economic Forum
Why it matters: We may be able to lock away more carbon in building materials than is used to make them. One company, MCi,* has figured out a way to make plasterboard by combining carbon dioxide with an abundant low-grade rock called serpentinite. In this story Sophia Hamblin Wang, one of the World Economic Forum’s Global Shapers and COO of MCi, explains the process and her vision for locking away one billion tons of carbon annually by 2040.
*EDF doesn’t endorse specific business ventures.
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