Krucial, the Scottish scaleup which uses space tech to provide digital solutions anywhere on Earth, has been awarded a contract from the European Space Agency (ESA) to develop a new water monitoring solution.

This comes following an initiative launched by the ESA in 2023, called “Digitising Water Resilience — Acting on Water Stress in Basins.”

Krucial, which recently raised further funding of £3 million, will lead a consortium for the project, which includes the University of Strathclyde, Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC), agtech startup Deep Planet, and analytics and artificial intelligence firm SAS.

The new water-resilience monitoring and analysis solution will combine multiple data sets, including in-situ ground sensor data, weather data, and space-based data, moving this data from river basins to a cloud-computing platform via Krucial’s hybrid connectivity tech.

The data analytics platform, powered by AI and Internet of Things (IoT) analytics from SAS, will be able to analyse water levels and water quality for the Earth’s 100 most populous river basins.

The platform will continuously provide derived data to policymakers, scientists, businesses, and government agencies to help them make better decisions about managing precious water resources.

River basins provide water for billions of people worldwide, and with a reduction in freshwater supply expected in the coming years, the project seeks to drive interventions to reduce water usage, minimise pollution, and improve water resilience globally.

The technology is also anticipated to benefit agriculture, aquaculture, and others who rely on water for business operations. They too can use the information from the platform to manage water resources, monitor flooding and drought risks, and increase sustainability.

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Commenting on the news, Allan Cannon, co-founder and CEO of Krucial, said: “This project has the potential to improve the lives of billions of people, using the latest space and analytics technology to benefit water basins across every corner of the globe by enabling data-led interventions and practices.

“Without access to the insights that our combined solution will provide, it is impossible to take the necessary steps to tackle water stress, and I’m extremely proud that Krucial is leading the fight against climate change on multiple fronts.

“I’m confident that the end solution will be a game-changer for policymakers, businesses and communities as we face ever-increasing stress in freshwater supply. With backing from the European Space Agency and some of the biggest companies on earth, we have the chance to achieve something truly transformative for the planet.”

The project has received support from Jacobs, Clean International and Lovexair Foundation.