IBM
announced that its research division is working on a pilot with The Freshwater Trust (TFT) and satellite sensor provider SweetSense to monitor and track groundwater use using IoT and blockchain.
Groundwater in California’s Sacramento San Joaquin River Delta is a scarce resource, and 75% of the land is agricultural. It also supplies the San Francisco Bay Area. Different users will be allocated a cap on the amount of water they can pump which will be represented by tradeable shares. If a farmer is going to let a plot of land lie fallow, they may not need the water credit that year. Hence they can sell it to someone who needs extra.
Blockchain will be used to record all data exchanges or transactions on an immutable ledger. And smart contracts will automatically execute transactions. There will also be a web site where farmers, financiers and regulators can track the groundwater use.
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