Cleveland Water Alliance’s Data as a Service (DaaS) initiative provides water utilities and stakeholders with real-time, high-quality water data essential for informed decision-making. By deploying advanced sensors across our Smart Lake Erie Watershed, we’re making it easier and more cost-effective for utilities to access the data they need to safeguard water quality and plan for future challenges. This model, driven by the specific needs of our partners, aims to support critical infrastructure by equipping water managers with the insights necessary to adapt to changing water conditions.
Our journey began when Cleveland Water, the primary water utility serving the Cleveland metropolitan area, needed water quality data that went beyond the standard monitoring available at the time. Understanding the importance of accurate, site-specific data for water utilities, we teamed up with LimnoTech to explore a solution. Thanks to support from NOAA, buoys were acquired to monitor the area directly around Cleveland Water’s intakes, providing essential, accurate data for operations.
This partnership quickly demonstrated the power of precise data, which Cleveland Water leverages to prepare for fluctuations in water quality and anticipate challenges to drinking water safety. Seeing the immediate impact this data had on Cleveland Water’s operations highlighted the significant role technology can play in strengthening essential water systems and helping utilities manage costs while staying prepared for changing water conditions. Now, as we wrap up our fourth year of this program, we continue to see the value of real-time insights in building resilient and responsive water management systems.
The success of this project has laid the groundwork for our Data as a Service (DaaS) model. CWA is uniquely positioned to provide affordable, high-quality water data to utilities and other stakeholders who rely on real-time insights. By offering data as a service, we’ve been able to help Cleveland Water access critical information without the overhead of building and managing their own monitoring infrastructure.
Our collaboration with Cleveland Water has been a learning experience, shedding light on the specific needs of utilities and inspiring us to build out the Smart Lake Erie Watershed (SLEW) system. Through a combination of telecommunications and telemetry, SLEW enables more robust data collection, expanding our ability to monitor multiple points in the watershed and deliver insights to stakeholders across the region. It’s a blueprint we hope to expand, making comprehensive, site-specific water data accessible to more utilities in the Great Lakes area and beyond.
As water conditions shift with the climate, utilities face increasing uncertainty about what might impact their water quality. Having direct access to real-time data through our buoy network equips utilities with the information they need to anticipate and respond to changes and events. Working with Cleveland Water has helped us understand the specific needs of utilities, inspiring us to make these data services available to more water utilities, stewards, and stakeholders across the Great Lakes region to support resilient and informed water management. As we continue evolving our Data-as-a-Service model and expanding the Smart Lake Erie Watershed, we aim to deliver even more powerful insights to help the Great Lakes region manage water quality.
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