River Deep Mountain AI
Amount awarded: £5,080,719
Led by: Northumbrian Water
Partners: ADAS, Anglian Water, Cognizant, Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water, Northern Ireland Water, South West Water, Stream, The Rivers Trust, Tidal, Google LLC., Uisce Éireann, Water Research Centre Limited, Wessex Water, Xylem Inc.
We will develop open-source, scalable, digital models to inform effective action to tackle waterbody pollution. Our novel use of Machine Learning will efficiently analyse existing data and new diverse data inputs. This will unlock new insights into the complex factors impacting waterbodies, bringing deeper understanding and accelerating positive change.
“The River Deep Mountain AI (RDMAI) project is set to revolutionise the way we gather insights and data on waterbody pollution – and will accelerate real positive environmental change across our regions. We are really excited to launch this exciting project at our very own Innovation Festival in July.” – Nigel Watson, Group Information Services Director, Northumbrian Water Group
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Update from the project (January 2025)
River Deep Mountain AI was kicked off in July 2024 at the Innovation Festival hosted by Northumbrian Water in Newcastle.
During the first phase of the project, running from July to October, the team has conducted interviews and co-creation sessions with more than 100 stakeholders from organizations across the sector, including academia, agriculture, environmental charities, ecologists, water companies and technology providers.
Based on this engagement a list of overarching themes has been selected based on environmental impact, stakeholder needs, and the potential of AI/ML to provide benefits over current approaches.
Within each of the overarching themes multiple AI/ML models are under development utilizing the power of AI and remote sensing. The models are addressing core challenges in the sector including detecting pollution sources, nutrient levels, bathing water quality, how to get the most out of continuous water quality data and more.
Currently we are working on the initial model development and collating relevant datasets which will be used during model training and validation
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Resources
For more information on River Deep Mountain AI, take a look at the following resources:
- Watch the project’s introductory video and post from Programme Lead George Gerring on LinkedIn
