QU’s CLD Publishes New Book on Technology and Law

The Centre for Law & Development (CLD) at Qatar University (QU) has recently published a book entitled “Big Data Analytics and Its Impact on Basin Water Agreements and International Water Law: A Study of the Ramotswa Aquifer.”

The monograph addresses a new emerging issue on the use of disruptive technologies for environmental governance. These technologies include artificial intelligence, big data, blockchain and many others. The authors addressed in the book the use of big data in the context of a specific transboundary groundwater: the Ramotswa Aquifer shared between South Africa and Botswana.

This monograph is an output of the big data and Transboundary Water Colllaboration in Southern Africa initiative. The Big Data Analytics and Transboundary Water Collaboration is jointly funded by USAID, the South African Department of Science and Technology, and the SADC Groundwater Management Institute, and managed primarily by the Water Research Commission, with technical support from the US Geological Survey and the IBM Research Africa Lab in South Africa. The authors have conducted research related to the legal implications of big data in the transboundary water context in the framework of projects funded by the initiative. This publication also received support from the NPRP award NPRP 11S-1119-170016 from the Qatar National Research Fund.

Disruptive technologies are making their way in the water sector at the national and international level. This has been the case for big data through which the different stakeholders are seeking to collect and process new information with the hope that such information can enhance water governance. In fact, recently, the potential impact of big data on transboundary water resources is being assessed in context of the big data initiative where the objective is to assess the practical impact of big data on selected basins, including the Ramotswa aquifer shared between South Africa and Botswana. International water law and transboundary water agreements have yet to address the emergence of disruptive technologies such as big data and their impact on shared water resources. The book examined the impact of big data on transboundary water governance from a legal perspective taking the Ramotswa aquifer as a case study.

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