license: mit
language:
- en
tags:
- Water
- Africa
- Datacenter
Dataset Card for Water Efficiency Dataset Creation: Africa-wide Study
Dataset Summary
This dataset focuses on improving water management practices for data centers across Africa. It includes nation-level time-series data on energy consumption and weather conditions from various African countries. The goal is to estimate water usage efficiency (WUE) in different climate regions and inform policymakers about sustainable water practices for data centers and AI computing.
The dataset allows detailed analysis of how local climatic conditions affect data center operations, particularly their cooling systems, and how different energy sources contribute to the water footprint of data centers. This helps optimize water usage in a region known for its water scarcity.
Dataset Creation
- Authors: Noah Shumba, Opelo Tshekiso, Pengfei Li, Giulia Fanti, Shaolei Ren
- Institution: Upanzi Network-Carnegie Mellon University Africa/University of California Riverside
- Source: WeatherAPI, African Energy Data Sources (OurWorldInData,ENERGYDATA.INFO )
The dataset was developed as part of ongoing research into the environmental impact of AI computing in resource-constrained regions like Africa. It is curated from both public datasets and proprietary weather data from the WeatherAPI.
Dataset Details
- Languages: English
- Domains: Water management, energy consumption, climate data, AI sustainability
- Data Types: Average water usage effectiveness across different countries
- Tasks: Analysis of water usage efficiency in data centers across multiple African countries, with potential applications in AI model impact analysis
The data covers a wide range of African climates, including rainforests, deserts, and savannas, to help assess the impact of geographical factors on data center water consumption.
BibTeX entry and citation info
@inproceedings{shumba2025water,
author = {Shumba, Noah and Tshekiso, Opelo and Li, Pengfei and Fanti, Giulia and Ren, Shaolei},
title = {A Water Efficiency Dataset for African Data Centers},
booktitle = {Proceedings of the ACM SIGCAS/SIGCHI Conference on Computing and Sustainable Societies (COMPASS25)},
year = {2025},
month = jul,
day = {22--25},
location = {Toronto, ON, Canada},
publisher = {ACM},
address = {New York, NY, USA},
pages = {1--8},
doi = {10.1145/3715335.3735483},
}
References
- OurWorldInData: Energy Mix in Africa
- ENERGYDATA.INFO
- WeatherAPI
- Sanchez, R.G., et al. "Freshwater use of the energy sector in Africa," Applied Energy, 2020.