Water footprint of emerging technology: A need for concern?

AUTHOR : BASU CHANDOLA

With the increasing prevalence of emerging technologies, there arises a necessity for deeper scrutiny of their water footprint

A basic Google search on keywords such as “emerging technology” and “water conservation” would show thousands of articles describing how technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Big Data, blockchain and the Internet of Things (IoT) can support the sustainable management of water.

Literature would suggest that these technologies when deployed in water infrastructure management can help increase the efficiency of existing systems, and optimise water allocation and distribution to improve access to clean water.

A lot of this literature, however, remains silent on the effect of such technologies on the environment. The infrastructure required for the operation of these technologies requires land and massive amounts of energy and water utilisation and greenhouse gas emissions. The use of such technologies, thus, has the possibility of having a serious environmental or ecological footprint. Several indicators such as carbon footprint, energy footprint, nitrogen footprint, biodiversity footprint, and land footprint, have been developed over time to assess the environmental impact, however, the scope of this piece is limited to the water footprint of emerging technologies. 

Calculating the water footprint of emerging technologies 

Broadly defined, the water footprint of a good or service would be the measure of freshwater consumed in the process of its production. This includes both direct and indirect water usage and is measured by water volumes consumed and/or polluted per unit of time. Unlike traditional products and services, calculating the water footprint of emerging technology is a complex process that needs to consider several factors including water consumed during energy generation, water usage during the manufacture of components, and direct use of water during operations. This piece will use AI and cryptocurrency to illustrate the various components of the water footprint of emerging technologies. 

Both AI and cryptocurrency require strong computing capacities that need massive amounts of energy for operation. This process of computing utilises water in three major ways—on-site water usage for cooling the system; off-site water usage at the time of electricity generation; and water usage during equipment manufacturing.

On-site water usage for cooling the system:  Training and using AI and mining cryptocurrency are energy-intensive processes that result in the generation of a lot of heat during computation. This heat needs to be discharged away from the systems to prevent overheating and to ensure optimal performance. To prevent overheating, water is used to cool the system by discharging heat through cooling towers or outside air cooling. 

Water usage at the time of electricity consumption :  As the AI systems use massive amounts of energy to operate, the water consumption during the generation of electricity needs to be taken into consideration. The water consumed would depend on the mode of energy production. Figure 1 demonstrates the range of water footprints of different sources of electricity.

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Taxonomy

• Water Footprint
• Water Footprint Research
• Water Footprint