IBM Smarter Cities Challenge: Smarter City

Suffolk County, in the Long Island region of New York, depends on a clean and sustainable water supply for its economic vitality and the health of its citizens. Its 1.5 million residents obtain their drinking water from the ground, an unusually large and dense population to be relying on sand, soil and clay -- instead of sewers -- to filter wastewater pathogens before they reenter the drinking supply. Among a range of concerns about water pollution, the risk of nitrogen pollution from aging, failing septic systems is of particularly high concern, especially in flood zones and across fragmented jurisdictions. County Executive Steve Bellone has asked IBM to provide recommendations on how to improve water quality through improvements in data management and sharing, better coordination of agencies and stakeholders, and the development of short- and long-term strategic plans around wastewater management.

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