Water is the most abundant resource on Earth yet the world faces many challenging water-related problems. Among them is the management of its freshwater resources. More than 1.2 billion people lack access to clean, safe water. This problem is critical in the developing world and is increasingly evident in the developed world as the proportion of persons living in dense urban environments increases and demands for water contend with the degradation of the quality of available water caused by human activities. Analogous to climate change, a complex set of interrelated forces makes the problem difficult to address, much less to solve effectively via coordinated policy.
The researchers at the University of Virginia, are running the Computing for Sustainable Water project on World Community Grid to study the effects of human activity on a large watershed and gain deeper insights into what actions can lead to restoration, health and sustainability of this important water resource.
Please join us and donate your unused computer time to help provide scientists invaluable information on how effectively managing a complex system, such as a major watershed, can lead to water restoration and sustainability.
For more information about this exciting project, please go to the Research overview on our website.
News Blogs
- To view comments from Philippe Cousteau, grandson of famed water expert Jacques-Yves Cousteau, please click here.
- To view comments from Gerard Learmonth, Principal Investigator, please click here.
Press Release
- To view the IBM press release, please click here.
Participation in the Computing for Sustainable Water project
Computing for Sustainable Water is the twenty-first research project to be launched on World Community Grid and one of twelve projects currently running on World Community Grid. The other eleven research projects are:
- Say No to Schistosoma (launched February, 2012)
- GO Fight Against Malaria (launched November, 2011)
- Drug Search for Leishmaniasis (launched August, 2011)
- Computing for Clean Water (launched August, 2010)
- The Clean Energy Project – Phase 2 (launched June, 2010)
- Discover Dengue Drugs – Together – Phase 2 (launched February, 2010)
- Help Cure Muscular Dystrophy – Phase 2 (launched May, 2009)
- Help Fight Childhood Cancer (launched March, 2009)
- Help Conquer Cancer (launched November, 2007)
- Human Proteome Folding - Phase 2 (launched July, 2006)
- FightAIDS@Home (launched November, 2005)
For more detailed information and FAQs about each of these projects, please click on the Research button in the upper navigation bar. We thank all of our members for their valuable contributions to the projects to date and hope you will continue to help us process those, as well as this latest project.
Because there are twelve research projects running on World Community Grid, your grid agent could receive work units from any of the projects depending on your Project profile. If you prefer, you may elect to focus your computer's time only on particular projects. To do so, press the My Grid button in the upper navigation bar and select My Projects or click here. Work is sent only to machines which meet minimum system requirements set for a particular project. To read more specifics on the system requirements for the Computing for Sustainable Water project and the other projects, click here.
Project Badge
If a member contributes a minimum of 14 days of CPU Run Time to this project, they will receive a Computing for Sustainable Water project badge on their member statistics page and next to their member name when they post in the forums. There is a different badge for each research project and beta testing. To read more about badges, click here.
Forums
In addition to providing information about this project, we have created a forum for discussions about the Computing for Sustainable Water project. To participate in this forum, please press the Forums button in the upper navigation bar or click here. Only forum authors with the title “Computing for Sustainable Water Scientist" are authorized to comment as representatives of the University of Virgina, USA.
Webcast
Coinciding with the launch of the Computing for Sustainable Water project will be a live webcast on April 20, 2012 at 16:00 UTC, where Dr. Gerry Learmonth, Sr. from the University of Virginia will give an overview of this exciting new project. Please click here for more information about this webcast.
Questions?
If you have any questions, World Community Grid provides you with four methods of obtaining assistance: (1) Review the FAQs found in the Help section of the website; (2) Review the forums to see if anyone has asked/answered the question that you have; (3) Ask the question in World Community Grid's Computing for Sustainable Water project forum found here and a Community Advisor or a more experienced member will provide an answer; or (4) Send an email to the support desk from the Contact Us link found at the bottom of every page of the website (except in the forums).
We thank you for contributing to the Computing for Sustainable Water project.