What is smart water conservancy?

Intelligence refers to the advanced comprehensive ability of organisms to regulate themselves and provide feedback to the outside world based on neural organs. It includes various abilities such as perception, memory, understanding, association, emotion, logic, discrimination, calculation, analysis, judgment, selection, tolerance, and decision-making. Wisdom enables people to deeply understand people, things, society, the universe, the past, the present, and the future, possessing the ability to think, analyze, and explore truth.

Water conservancy refers to the various measures taken by humans to control and allocate natural water and bodies of water for the needs of survival and development, in order to prevent and control water and drought disasters, and to develop, utilize, and protect water resources.

Water is the source of all life and the material needed for human life and production activities. In the survival and development of human society, it is necessary to constantly adapt, utilize, transform, and protect the water environment. The water conservancy industry continues to develop with the development of social productivity and has become an important pillar of human civilization and economic development.

The productivity of primitive society was low, and humans did not have the ability to change the natural environment. People live in pursuit of water and grass, choose hills and rely on fishing, hunting, gathering, and nomadic activities for a living. They can only seek benefits and avoid harm to water in nature, and passively adapt.

After entering the slave society and feudal society, with the development of iron tools, people developed agriculture, built villages and towns on both sides of rivers, which led to the need for flood control, drainage, irrigation, shipping, and urban water supply, thus creating and developing the water conservancy industry.

In the 20th century, with the recovery and development of economies in various countries, as well as the emergence of new theories such as systems theory, control theory, and information theory, and new technologies such as electronic computers, remote sensing, and microwave communication, the water conservancy industry entered a new era of vigorous development. However, in some places, excessive development of water and soil resources or failure to effectively protect them have resulted in negative consequences. For example, a large number of Rivers and Lakes have been encroached on, reducing the flood control capacity; Overlogging and excessive cultivation of forests and grasslands have exacerbated soil erosion; The discharge of toxic wastewater from industrial and mining areas has polluted water sources; Overexploitation of groundwater has led to water crisis and other issues. Therefore, water conservancy is facing many new challenges.

Entering the 21st century, with the support of information technology, the application of emerging technologies such as cloud computing, big data, the Internet of Things, mobile terminals, artificial intelligence, water conservancy models, sensors, etc., promotes the intelligence of water conservancy planning, engineering construction, operation management, and social services, enhances the utilization efficiency of water resources and the defense ability against water and drought disasters, improves water environment and water ecology, and ensures national water security and sustainable economic and social development.

Overall, the connotation of smart water conservancy mainly includes three aspects: (1) the application of new information and communication technologies. It refers to the application of information sensing, Internet of Things, mobile Internet, cloud computing, big data, artificial intelligence and other technologies. (2) Monitoring and fusion of multiple departments and sources of information. The integrated application of comprehensive monitoring information from multiple departments including meteorology, hydrology, agriculture, oceanography, and municipal administration, including aerial, airborne, ground, and underground monitoring. (3) System integration and application, which integrates functions such as information monitoring and analysis, scenario prediction and forecasting, scientific scheduling decision-making, and control application. Among them, information is the foundation of smart water conservancy; Knowledge is the core of intelligent water conservancy; Ability enhancement is the goal of smart water conservancy.