AUTHOR=Hazell Peter , Novitzky Peter , van den Oord Steven TITLE=Socio-technical system analysis of responsible data sharing in water systems as critical infrastructure JOURNAL=Frontiers in Big Data VOLUME=5 YEAR=2023 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/big-data/articles/10.3389/fdata.2022.1057155 DOI=10.3389/fdata.2022.1057155 ISSN=2624-909X ABSTRACT=

Attention is increasingly focused on the protection of water systems as critical infrastructure, including subsystems of supply, sanitation, hygiene, and management. Similarly increasing consideration is paid to the growing role and impact of data on water systems and management. We explore key challenges associated with data-driven water systems as critical infrastructure. First, we describe the status of water infrastructure as a part of national critical infrastructure. Second, as this infrastructure increasingly relies on the constant flow of data from a huge variety, quality, and complexity of sensors, we provide a descriptive framework to map in detail the particular expertise needed across data-driven water management, applied to the UK water infrastructure as our use case. Third, through the framework of Capabilities Approach (CA) we analyze the specific challenges of data-driven water management, and argue that the current predominant narratives in the water infrastructure discourse have difficulties to effectively convey existing and emerging challenges. Fourth, we further demonstrate the widening gap between infrastructure services and consumer goods, arguing for increased convergence of the utilization of consumer data, and developing open data ecosystems.