WWD on Machine Learning Benefits for Public Health

March 18, 2022 – Water & Wastes Digest published an article on the benefits of taking a machine learning approach to improving public health. The article “Machine Learning can identify harmful lead service lines and keep cities healthier” was written by Greg Baird.

The reason utilities and their engineering partners can benefit from machine learning is there is insufficient information on service line materials in utility records.

For all utilities, proactively addressing water quality and the potential of lead service lines is an issue of public trust between the local government and individual households. Cities, and by extension, water utilities, need to be equipped with the information needed to identify where lead service lines are and develop a safe removal plan while equitably protecting public health. 

Greg Baird in Water and Wastes Digest (full text)

The article explores four key benefits of machine learning approaches:

  1. Reduce cost
  2. Increase efficiency
  3. Increase equity
  4. Build healthy, thriving communities

Read the full article on the WWD site.

BlueConduit

About BlueConduit

BlueConduit pioneered the predictive modeling approach to lead service line identification and replacement. Through BlueConduit data science, utilities, municipalities, government agencies, and consultants standardize, predict, report, and communicate key information about lead.