Vasudha Sharma | March 21, 2018: A mid-winter thaw and unprecedented rainfall during the month of February caused severe flooding across cities of Southwestern Ontario, as swollen rivers and streams overflowed. The Chatham-Kent community in the region could face its worst flooding in 50 years, while other cities and townships across Southwestern Ontario remain on flood watch.
Urban floods have become a recurring phenomenon every year as climate patterns increasingly tread on the abnormal. But if municipal bodies and government agencies were to leverage the power of Big Data analytics, loss of life and damage to property could be greatly reduced, while disaster-relief could be better planned.
Big Data analytics, in conjunction with the Internet of Things (IoT), is being described as the next Industrial Revolution. Within this context, environmental monitoring, especially the management of water resources is one sector riding on this technology wave.
FlowWorks, a flexible SaaS offering by Carl Data Solutions Inc. (CSE:CRL), allows for real-time monitoring and analysis of water resources through a centralized dashboard.
Decoding Big Data for Environmental Insights
Governments or utility companies in wastewater management struggle with a deluge of data coming in from multiple environmental monitoring systems. The FlowWorks platform is designed to take on this data with a single web-based interface that elegantly transforms a company's data overload into actionable insights.
FlowWorks ingests data from Industrial IoT sensors and all kinds of monitoring equipment, gauges and sensor hardware units installed in municipal and industrial infrastructure. These units include municipal reservoirs, water treatment plants, sewers and storm-water systems, dams and hydroelectric facilities. In real-time, FlowWorks tracks and analyzes water quality and water levels, and uses that information to automate notifications and warnings.
Carl Data's Machine Learning capabilities together with the predictive analytics of FlowWorks help forecast weather events that can result in a Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO). FlowWorks also automates alarms and can notify authorities and the public about imminent infrastructure collapses. Residents in the area can also be informed about possible pollution of public waterways.
"Our software optimizes operational and engineering resources, so the focus is not on finding problems in infrastructure and water use, but on predicting where disasters may occur," explains Greg Johnston, the President, CEO and Director of Carl Data Solutions.
All the data-crunching happens on a web-based dashboard that can work on any device and doesn't need any hardware installation.
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Forecasting a Flood Seven Days Early
A groundbreaking feature of Carl Data's Flood Risk Forecaster application for mining, developed from FlowWorks, is its powerful ability to predict the risk of a flood. It analyzes sensor data about rainfall, sewers, stream flow and combines it with public weather data and graphs it against historical statistics to forecast flooding or potential risks to infrastructure.
"Whether it is forecasting floods, droughts, storms or a combined sewer overflow caused by weather, our proven applications predict up to seven days in advance when and where these events may occur," says Mr. Johnston, while explaining how their machine learning capabilities sharpen their flood forecasting.
The seven-day forecasting feature is finding traction in the market in light of a new rule recently introduced by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. It mandates all Great Lakes states to establish a public notification system for CSO events. The intention is to allow the public and affected public entities to have a fast turnaround time in the event of a combined sewage discharge into the Great Lakes. Therefore, measures can be taken to reduce their exposure to possible health effects.
Carl Data Solutions recently announced that it has built such a public notification system for the city of Boston that it will be launching soon. The Company is also fielding tremendous interest from other Great Lakes cities and municipalities in the region.
"Carl Data's solutions save money, and could possibly save lives," declares CEO Johnston.
Prepare for a Drought with FlowWorks Analytics
Carl Data's predictive analytics platform is applicable to any industry that faces the threat of natural disasters. The Flood Risk Forecasting application is being deployed in the mining industry. Teck Resources has been using the Flood Risk Forecaster for over a year and is deploying to more mine sites, even as other large mining companies approach Carl Data Solutions to adopt this application at their mining sites. Teck is also looking at possibly using a similar tool in development from Carl Data to help predict low-flow and drought times that can also cause problems for operations.
Machine Learning to Drive Growth Story
Many large cities such as Toronto, Dallas and Los Angeles, along with public utilities and engineering companies, are Carl Data's clients. The Company sees itself at the forefront of a rapidly-expanding Big Data and Industrial IoT market, which is estimated to grow to US$14.4 trillion by 2022. Its top leadership is comprised of data scientists and application developers who have launched award-winning Fortune 500 solutions. In terms of its financial health, the Company has minimal development costs and capital requirements.
Carl Data Solutions says they are set apart from their competition because their Plug-and-Play model makes them agile. Being SaaS based, their clients don't need to invest in hardware or software. Their turnkey solutions also don't lock clients into long-duration contracts, letting them pay as they go.
Carl Data Solutions' Polish subsidiary has recently received a European Union grant for research and development of wastewater-monitoring machine-learning. An outcome of this research is going to be sensor anomaly detection, which according to the Company takes their growth story to the next level. A superior product on their Big Data-as-a-Service platform (BDaaS) that improves the operational efficiency of their clients will help Carl Data achieve their revenue targets.
Carl Data Solutions' business plan is to acquire new products or services in the market that complement its existing capabilities in data integration, business intelligence and Industrial IoT. This strategy has worked in the Company's favour by helping them corner niche sectors that are just beginning to adopt Big Data. In fact, many cities across the globe are going to upgrade their infrastructure or will leap to building ‘smart cities’. Carl Data today has an impressive suite of nimble yet cutting-edge technologies through which it can service data-centric companies and institutions. Big Data is set for explosive growth in the next decade and Carl Data Solutions is strategically positioned to take advantage of this opportunity.
To find out more about Carl Data Solutions Inc. (CSE:CRL), please visit the company's Investor Hub.
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