Water risk intelligence built from public data, satellite observation, and transparent methodology.
Impact Research supports ALCUB3 Impact's program portfolio. Water Intelligence is the first live program, and this track holds the methods, reports, source notes, and validation plans behind Water Pulse, Observatory, BasinKit, and future public-good domains.
How water intelligence is measured, caveated, and checked.
Methods is the public surface for Impact's scoring logic, evidence quality, uncertainty handling, and publication standards. Every public claim should trace back to a source, a method, or a visible caveat.
Risk families before one score
Water quality, PFAS and contamination indicators, drought, flood, groundwater context, infrastructure age, and property relevance should stay inspectable before any composite score is shown.
Source confidence
Each claim carries a source tier: directly observed, public-record derived, modeled, inferred, or unavailable. The confidence label matters as much as the score.
Satellite-backed change
Sentinel-2, Landsat, SWOT, and SAM 2 / SAM 2.1 segmentation can support visible water-body change work when the output includes region, date, confidence, and applicability limits.
Evidence tiers (full definitions)
- Measured: the claim comes from a real observation. EPA violations, USGS streamflow readings, lab test results. Strongest tier; latency is the main caveat.
- Estimated: reasonable math applied to observed inputs, but the specific case hasn't been verified. Population-weighted drought severity is estimated. Most good engineering.
- Modeled: a machine learning model or statistical projection produced the output. Satellite segmentation, PFAS risk projections, climate-adjusted forecasts. Useful in aggregate, careful per-instance.
- Roadmap: we intend to build this. It doesn't exist today. Transparent about what's planned vs shipped.
Water intelligence coverage, calibration, and limits.
Impact benchmarks measure what the water-intelligence layer can actually claim. Coverage, calibration, confidence, regional generalization, and evidence-tier correctness.
Where the data reaches
Percentage of US zip codes covered by EPA-reported water systems, USGS gauge proximity, NOAA flood-alert coverage, and drought-monitor resolution. Where the data reaches, and where it doesn't.
Claim vs ground truth
How product claims compare against verified quality events, public water records, known flood products, confirmed contamination episodes, and partner review where available.
Does the method travel?
How well methodologies developed on one region (e.g., California) generalize to another (e.g., Gulf Coast). Regional caveats are published with every score.
Technical reports and evidence briefs.
Public research covering water intelligence, public data gaps, property relevance, satellite observation, PFAS and contamination context, flood, drought, groundwater, infrastructure, and observability signals.
The Water Risk Information Gap
Toward property-level water intelligence from public data. Drafting now under the ALCUB3 publication workflow.
The three gaps that shape the product
Coverage gap, latency gap, and interpretation gap. These define what Water Pulse and Observatory need to make visible without overstating what public data can prove.
Satellite-backed water change
How Landsat, Sentinel-2, SWOT, NOAA, and SAM 2 segmentation can support visible-change claims with date, region, confidence, and source limits attached.
Accelerated geospatial AI
ALCUB3 can use open geospatial, climate, and accelerated AI tooling, including NVIDIA ecosystem components where appropriate, without implying a formal partnership.
Public data and source notes.
Every public surface traces back to these primary sources. Impact does not invent data — it integrates and interprets public sources honestly, with each source's coverage and limits named explicitly.
Drinking water data
EPA ECHO, Safe Drinking Water Information System (SDWIS), and violation records. Strongest for public water systems serving 25+ people. Does not cover private wells.
Surface water + streamflow
USGS gauges, daily values, and the National Water Information System (NWIS). Streamflow and water levels at gauge stations. Surface water only — not a groundwater surface.
Drought + flood alerts
US Drought Monitor (weekly), National Water Prediction Service, NOAA flood-alert feeds. Near real-time flood; weekly drought. Both labeled by last-updated timestamp.
Global water risk + observation
Sentinel-2, Landsat, NASA SWOT, NOAA NWPS, and SAM 2 / SAM 2.1 segmentation baselines. Powers the Observatory signals layer with public caveats.
Public provenance rules
- Source families: canonical datasets, papers, and external references each method depends on.
- Scope boundaries: what a source can support directly and where assumptions begin.
- Refresh expectations: whether a source is static, periodically updated, or actively monitored.
- Disclosure: if we can't trace a claim to a source, we don't publish the claim.
Where impact research lands.
See the product
Impact Research directly supports Water Pulse, Observatory, BasinKit, and the Water Intelligence API. The methodology and benchmarks on this page are what let those surfaces claim what they claim.
Open ALCUB3 Impact →Learn the vocabulary
The Water Intelligence with Impact path teaches readers how to interpret the evidence tiers on a real consumer product. Research explains why; the Institute teaches how.
Explore Impact →See the other track
Platform Research mirrors this structure for the core ALCUB3 products. Same methodology discipline, different domain.
Open Platform Track →