Virtual Stations. Real Insights. Anticipating River Dynamics for Smarter Water Resource Decisions.

The global leader in the forecasting of river flow and water levels, BWI provides a basin digitization service that supports climate resilience for public authorities and businesses. Clients access BWI’s extensive hydrological forecasts via virtual stations—digital measurement points placed throughout watersheds that forecast river flows and, under certain conditions, water levels. Virtual stations equally provide near real-time hydrological estimates as well as flow duration curves when needed.

Why BWI?

2.3 billion and counting

More than 2.3 billion people have been facing water stress, and almost 160 million children have been exposed to severe and prolonged droughts (UN, 2022). Hence, monitoring and forecasting continental freshwater resources and related hazards are essential to human life, political stability, and economic activity.

2.5% of Earth’s water is freshwater and only 1% is usable and available for ecosystems and humans

Nearly 97% of the world’s water is salty or undrinkable, while ice caps and glaciers contain another 2%. Therefore, that leaves just 1% for all of humanity’s needs — agricultural, residential, manufacturing, community, and personal needs (IAEA, 2011).

Hydrological forecasting on top of near real-time continental freshwater monitoring

There is an inextricable link between water and climate change. Since global warming affects the world’s water resources in a complex way, looking at past water reserve data, river flow data, or water quality data isn’t enough. Technology is now sufficiently mature to look at the future and anticipate it. Policymakers and corporate decision-makers can now use AI-powered tools for improved forecasts of water levels, river flows, water reservoir volumes, water quality, and hydro-climatic disasters such as floods and droughts. 

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What is BWI about?

Freshwater data & insights for climate resilience through hydrological virtual stations

Climate change is exacerbating both water scarcity and water hazards – such as floods, droughts, and water pollution, as rising temperatures disrupt precipitation patterns and the entire water cycle. Therefore, it is important to do our best to augment climate resilience. BWI subscribers benefit from hydrological forecasts based on dozens of data sources – such as space sensors, weather radars, and other ground sensors. BWI also strives to launch a nano-satellite constellation dedicated to continental freshwater level monitoring at all major basins worldwide. A daily global inland water availability monitoring will help quantify the impact of climate change on water resources.

River flow forecasts are necessary to anticipate water hazards such as floods, droughts and water pollution

Water is critical to life. In the next decades, population growth is expected to amplify the already tremendous pressure on water resources while global warming generates more and more extreme hydro-climatic events such as floods, heat waves and droughts, which are mainly affecting the most vulnerable populations. Taking into account the accelerating effects of climate change on water stress is the reason BWI reinforces hydraulic and hydrological models with deep learning, so clients are delivered with state-of-the-art flood and drought forecasts.

BWI delivers hydrological data, forecasts and early-warning services

River flow forecasts for run-of-river hydropower plants and hydroelectricity traders

River flow forecasts through hydrological virtual stations to enhance small hydro assets performance and hydroelectricity day-ahead trading.

River flow forecasts for hydropower

Watershed digitization for public authorities

River basin digitization to forecast water levels, river flow, water quality and to provide stakeholders with early warning tools and information about water availability via hydrological virtual stations. 

Watershed digitization for basin authorities

Hydrological forecasts for insurance, risk management and analytics

All-things-continental-freshwater API to provide high-accuracy hydrological forecasts to risk managers, actuaries, and disaster prevention specialists.

Flood forecasts for risk managers

Hydrological monitoring and forecasting for irrigation and agri-food industries

River flow forecasts to help agriculture, fishery and the food and beverage industry to preserve ecosystems by securing biological and reserved flows.

Hydrological forecasts for agriculture

High-revisit water level space mission

At least 20.000 global water level measurement points, updated daily by a constellation of 10 nano-satellites, will be made available via an API.

High-revisit water level space sensors

Balloons designed for water quality monitoring missions

BWI balloon missions, whether tethered and atmospheric or geostationary and stratospheric, are designed to address the challenges of monitoring the quality of inland waters at the scale of a river basin.

Balloons to monitor water quality

Who are BWI hydrological forecasting services for?

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Basin authorities

Governments, municipalities, and basin authorities require accurate and reliable water data, including information on river flow, water levels and quality, and forecasts of potential hazards.
  • In 2022, the global cost of damages caused by floods was estimated at $82 billion, making flooding one of the most expensive natural disasters globally (The Swiss Re, 2022).
  • Studies show that every $1 spent on early warning systems saves up to $15 in post-disaster recovery costs, underscoring the importance of predictive forecasting for water management (UNDRR,2023).

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Blue Water Intelligence (BWI) offers subscription-based services to empower governments with advanced water hazard forecasting, enabling early warnings to safeguard lives and livelihoods. With flood and drought forecasts of up to 10 days, proactive disaster management is now within reach.

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Water-sensitive companies

Risk managers, energy producers, water utilities, and the food and beverage industry rely on water-related forecasts and data to optimize operations, mitigate risks, and drive informed decision-making.
  • Agriculture accounts for 70% of global freshwater use, making accurate water forecasts essential for irrigation planning (WorldBank, 2017).
  • According to Osman et al. (2023) hydropower production could decrease by 40% in some regions as a result of climate change.

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Hydro-climatic events, river flows, water levels, and water quality can be forecasted. This is where Blue Water Intelligence plays a crucial role, providing valuable hydrological data and forecasts to its clients.

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IFIs & NGOs

Many cross-border conflicts are caused by disputes over water resources, which could be prevented with more appropriate water prediction services.
  • The World Bank (2022) reports that 23% of the global population is directly exposed to significant flood risks. The effects of climate change are unevenly spread out, given that 89% live in low- and middle-income countries experiencing more severe consequences than wealthier nations (UNDP, 2023).
  • Since 2000, droughts have impacted approximately 1.5 billion people worldwide, resulting in economic losses totaling $124 billion (UN,2022). Since the global water demand is increasing, available freshwater resources are diminishing, further exacerbating geopolitical tensions (CNRM, 2024).

 

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Building critical infrastructure in flood-prone areas and other infrastructures with future forecasts makes the intervention of international donors and NGOs key to environmental, social, and economic recovery. 

BWI website is low-carbon

Did you know that the Internet also contributes to climate change? Have you ever heard of greenhouse gas emissions generated by your online activity? Using your computer and browsing the Internet with your smartphone consume energy via thousands of cables and computers that run permanently in data centers, and also because greenhouse gases have been necessary to manufacture and ship these devices. Each visit to this website generates about 0.41g of eCO2. That’s still too much, but we’re working on mitigating these carbon emissions further.

Here are some of the eco-design practices BWI has applied, aiming to minimize the carbon footprint of this website:

  • the code has been optimized to be generated quickly and with the minimum possible resources,
  • Compressed Images,
  • Limited CSS styles,
  • Few plugins are used to avoid loading useless libraries.