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

By | November 2, 2009, 3:01 AM PST

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.

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Heather Clancy

About Heather Clancy

Heather Clancy is a contributing editor for SmartPlanet.

Heather Clancy

Heather Clancy

Contributing Editor, Business

Heather Clancy has written for United Press International, ZDNet, Entrepreneur, Fortune Small Business, the International Herald Tribune and the New York Times. She holds a degree from McGill University. She is based in New Jersey.

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Heather Clancy

Heather Clancy
Writing publicly about what the high-tech industry is actually doing to help itself and the world get greener or more sustainable is one way I figure I can contribute more meaningfully to said effort. I'm also a big OMG-kind-of-fan of smart leadership, which is why the goodly folks who publish this blog let me go on about this topic and why I am always on the hunt for forward-looking business management ideas.

My daily writing is focused on looking for topics for my blogs, GreenTech Pastures and Business Brains. I also write often about emerging technology trends such as mobile computing, unified communications and cloud computing. Occasionally, I will pop up at an industry conference in some sort of speaking capacity. In cases where a speaking engagement involves a sponsor that may be covered in this blog, that fact will be disclosed in coverage as appropriate.

My corporate writing work usually consists of crafting research white papers about some aspect of technology. In the event that my commentary (in written, audio or video form) mentions a company for which I have provided consulting advice, I will disclose that fact. However, there is no connection between these projects and the topics that I'm covering in my blog.

She writes for SmartPlanet and is not an employee of CBS.

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