AI virtual assistant displaying a visual map of environmental flow and water availability in the Limpopo River BasinFIGURE 5 Note: This map highlights areas requiring immediate action as of October 2024. The summary includes healthy rivers, warning zones and critical ecosystem threat levels, aiding in timely decision-making and resource management. By facilitating natural language queries, the assistant enhances accessibility and usability, transforming raw data into actionable information. It can help users draft reports, plot maps and explore various scenarios, making it a crucial tool for anticipating risks and strategizing in developing climate-resilient water management solutions that will improve the sustainable use of natural resources in the basin. This initiative is based on a multistakeholder approach. By collaborating with local agencies and making use of country-specific resources, the platform remains adaptable, scalable and aligned with regional needs. Partnerships with tech experts such as Microsoft and Amazon Web Services (AWS) have created a robust, flexible infrastructure that promotes shared ownership and maximizes impact across the region.Moving forward, IWMI is working with the UNICEF- YOMA platform to integrate citizen science data into the LRB digital twin, empowering local communities to report basin challenges. This inclusion enriches the data ecosystem with insights for the voices that were never heard before while building capacity within the communities, allowing for more responsive, localized decision-making. The digital twin prototype offers a transformative solution for the Limpopo River Basin, with scalability to other basins through its adaptable infrastructure. By enabling seamless integration within a water-food system, it supports resilience and sustainability. Through advanced data integration, real-time monitoring and AI-driven insights, the digital twin aligns with the food-water stack’s vision for a secure and sustainable future in global food and water systems. Food and Water Systems in the Intelligent Age 12

Food and Water Systems in the Intelligent Age 2024