“When the wells dry up, we’ll know the value of water” How is A.I being used in water resource management?

This research delves into how A.I is being used in water resource management. Water problems such as scarcity, lack of sanitation, flooding and droughts are dangerous problems that pose a threat to humanity. Climate change and the gradual increase of temperature around the world accelerates the impact of the water crisis worldwide. Over the years, attempts have been made by organizations to utilize technology and artificial intelligence in a way that can tackle water problems. The gap in research that was identified was the lack of literature on the impacts that integrating A.I currently has and the implications it has for the sustainable development. This research conducted a qualitative content analysis of 40 documents from three different case studies: Banyan Water, Staal Instruments and HydroNET. The content analysis resulted in the identification of three themes: 1) usage of A.I, 2) financial considerations, 3) environmental concerns. A stakeholder analysis was also conducted to assess how different beneficiaries of A.I are being integrated for water resource management. The results of this thesis demonstrated that despite there being advantages for integrating technology to mitigate climate change effects this is stifled by the neoliberal market demands. These demands mandate that organizations focus on generating profit and thus the technology is framed in a cost saving instead of a means to achieve common good. Suggestions for further research include critically addressing the inequalities that exist due to capitalism which make integrating technology for common good a relatively difficult to task as not all stakeholders will be able to benefit from such innovations.