Eight has been a momentous year for Hydroinformatics Institute. We have found more ways to apply our water technology solutions to address mounting concerns about extreme weather and climate change. This includes finding wider and more creative uses for our proprietary Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning products.

Among key milestones has been our tie-up with PUB and NUS to develop a Coastal-Inland Flood Model over the next four years, allowing PUB to better assess both inland and coastal flood risks in Singapore. Faster and more accurate water management insights also mean being able to better predict and mitigate the impact of climate change. In another pilot project, we are tapping StarHub’s ubiquitous network of mobile base stations as “opportunistic” rainfall sensors, allowing us to create a cost-effective rainfall monitoring system. The idea was among four PUB Global Innovative Challenge winners, picked for its potential to drive operational excellence and address Singapore’s future water needs through the application of digital solutions and smart technologies. 

Meanwhile, our CCTV-enabled rainfall monitoring pilot has been scaled up to an operational system deployed at approximately 1/3rd of PUB cameras under the Living Lab (Water) Scheme supported by Singapore’s National Research Foundation (NRF) and PUB. The X-band radar system we have been working on since 2018, now uses state-of-the-art machine learning techniques to further improve the accuracy of the rainfall observations.

Since we started eight years ago, our focus has been on generating better and more useful insights that will help countries and industries operate in ways that are safer. We continue to explore more avenues to do so. Our enhanced partnership with Royal HaskoningDHV inked a year ago is a crucial step in acceleration and scaling up of our solutions further and faster.

Thank you to the entire H2i community for working so hard to make this happen. We’re also grateful to our clients, partners and friends for journeying with us.

We can’t wait to see what the next year will bring, and look forward to your continued support.