A Review of Innovative Technologies for Sustaining Water Catchment Areas: Toward Sustainability Development

A catchment area or basin represents the space of land where all the surface water joins a body of water such as a river and is the source of water and sediment movement through the river. Aside from the delineation and construction of catchment areas, its sustainability must be a priority. To fulfill the Sustainable Development Goal 2, agriculture being the largest stakeholder in catchment areas requires a consistent water supply to achieve food security and eradicate hunger. This study reviewed some literature on water catchment sustainability leveraging innovative technologies adopted by different sectors which help to maintain and improve the quantity and quality of water available to stakeholders. Such technologies utilized for water treatment in catchment areas seek to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal 6 by ensuring the purification of water supplied into such areas. Geospatial technologies help in catchment prospecting and landscaping, while digital and intelligent water meters have also been developed to measure and manage water in catchment areas, with recent developments involving the gamification of water meters. In addition to the greening of catchment infrastructures which is a low-cost nature-based method for catchment area sustenance, soil sensors and irrigation management techniques minimize water consumption with very minimal human supervision, while rooftops of buildings close to and around the catchments made from nontoxic materials help to improve water quality and ensure the sustenance of water catchments.