The Dutch ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment will open up all the new tools, knowledge and answers to the research questions that are created during the 'Digital Delta' project, a one-year pilot on the sharing of data to improve the water management at the Dutch water boards. The registry that is constructed in this project will be made available as open source. "The pilot wants to foster collaboration and that is why we will be sharing both the data and the software solutions", says Raymond Feron, project manager for the ministry.

The country counts over a hundred water management projects that are all separately managed. "We found out that in each of these, 30 to 60 per cent of the budget is spent on gathering data. Organisations are duplicating efforts in building tools and ICT solutions, there is little sharing and re-use, and much of the data is not available in machine-readable formats. We can save time and money here", Feron said.

There is another need for integration. Climate change is making the weather more extreme, extreme floods following extreme dry periods. "We need to be smarter, for example, to predict flooding so we can redirect traffic, or if needed prepare emergency responses."

No lock-in

The water data exchange project began 19 June. The ministry is working with the Technical University of Delft, research institute Deltares, regional water authority Delfland and ICT service provider IBM. Raymond Feron, project manager for the ministry presented the project at a conference in Brussels, this week Thursday. "We're drafting an IT architecture that will not lock ourselves in to one platform."

"Our aim is to provide links to existing data and prove that this can be used in smart ways, and that such solutions can be put in practice quick." For example, the project will automate the exchange of data between to neighbouring water boards, both using sluices to control water levels in their areas. "One may decide to raise water levels, but the other is about to lower them. Automating the exchange of data might mean they avoid undoing their neighbour's pumping efforts, saving energy and money."

Science

A second use case, by the regional water autority Delfland, is focussing on the area around the city of Rotterdam. Here the pilot wants to make available water gauge data and involve small and medium-sized enterprises to develop smart applications. Making the tools open, he explains, will help to gain the trust of the SMBs. "They don't have to fear that their software applications will be locked-in by the big IT service provider that we hired to help us."

The science partners, Delft University and open source-savvy research institute Deltares, hope that the project will result in new uses for the data. Feron: "It should result in know-how that can be used across the world."

More information:

Digital Delta announcement
open source at Deltares
Presentation by Feron (April 2013)
ZDnet news item