As announced on the eve of World Water Day (March 22, 2022), KETOS is the winner of this year’s Water Data Prize in the mapping category!
What is the Water Data Prize?
The Environmental Policy Innovation Center (EPIC) created The Water Data Prize to help build new approaches to sharing water information to help consumers understand if the water in their communities is safe to drink.
This year, dozens of organizations participated, with prizes awarded across various categories covering four main areas that can help support new federal water regulations around the Lead and Copper Rule. These are:
- Communications (tools and visualizations to give consumers actionable details on lead violations, sample results, replacement status, or health information surrounding lead in drinking water)
- Equity (tools that can help promote more equitable lead water pipe identification and replacement initiatives)
Inventory (tools to assist in the prediction and determination of the location of lead pipes to help build an up-to-date list) - Mapping (tools with simple interactive mapping technology to make lead pipe information more useful for public consumption)
Judging Criteria for 2022 Participants
EPIC chose an expert panel to determine which entries met the following criteria:
- How easily the average individual can understand the data/information related to lead water pipes.
- How the submission creatively promotes accessibility, ADA compliance, and various languages.
- How easily users can engage with the data to learn more.
- How the tool leverages emerging or existing technology in a novel way.
- Which submission offers the most considerable improvement as compared to existing standards.
- How inexpensive/straightforward the tool is to implement.
Why the Data Prize is Important
EPIC and the Water Data Prize believe ideas exist in design, communications, and other technology that can help find and remove lead quickly, equitably, and more efficiently. However, organizational and cultural walls, and sometimes inertia, keep those ideas from reaching water operators. The Water Data Prize was designed to break down those barriers while encouraging the development of innovative ideas that can remove lead pipes from existing infrastructure.
What The Data Prize Means for KETOS
With recognition from such a prestigious organization, we’re continuing to show the strength of KETOS’ mapping capabilities. While KETOS works across many industries, the driving force behind KETOS is the belief that everyone has the right to access clean, safe drinking water. The Water Data Prize not only helps us gain more extensive visibility with water utilities across the nation, but it also helps us showcase our technology in action. It also allows companies to see that water quality solutions like ours don’t have to be expensive or complex endeavors.
We designed KETOS to be purposefully simple to install and maintain, with high interoperability and an effortless modular setup. Our data is presented so that users don’t need to be data scientists to understand what’s going on with their water. We also ensured that data would be easy to access and share across stakeholders.
Having an organization such as The Data Prize take note of our seamless design reinforces that we are on the right track and will continue to make inroads with utilities in the United States – and worldwide.
READ MORE: https://www.policyinnovation.org/blog/2021-water-data-prize-winners
