Blanket or bikini: Applying technology to water quality management in Ireland

Someone should talk to the communities along the legendary Jersey shore about this one: IBM is working with the Environmental Protection Agency in Ireland to start tracking the water quality and conditions at 130 beaches and lakes across Ireland. Data being collected includes water quality, tidal patterns, weather and so on.

Question for self: Bring bathing suit and wet suit for brother's 10th anniversary trip/reunion in Killarney.

Seriously, the country is trying to come up with a more prescriptive way of letting local communities communicate information in a consistent format, all adhering to the European 2006 Bathing Water Directive. Apparently it is the first of the 27 European Union members to adopt on online system; all the data is accessible on the Splash (cute) portal. I don't think the information is exactly available in real time yet, but it previously took close to a year to be published.

This post was originally published on Smartplanet.com