When infrastructure failures like collapsed roads, obscured signage or flooded corridors directly impact lives, how does a real-time digital inventory shift the ability of agencies to prevent those incidents rather than simply respond to them?

Mark Pittman: A near real-time digital inventory, powered by technologies such as Blyncsy, enables transportation agencies to move from reactive maintenance to proactive risk management. Using AI-driven computer vision to continuously monitor road networks, agencies can quickly identify issues such as damaged guardrails, faulty streetlights and missing signage.

This continuous visibility allows maintenance teams to address vulnerabilities — including blocked drainage and encroaching vegetation — before they escalate into serious incidents such as flooding, road closures or infrastructure failure.

Pittman: In regions like the Western Cape, where extreme weather is increasingly disrupting mobility, what are the real-world consequences when AI systems can flag hazards before they escalate into road closures or accidents?

In climate-exposed regions, AI-powered hazard detection helps preserve both public safety and economic resilience. Recent flooding events in South Africa have shown how quickly communities can become isolated when transport infrastructure fails.

By identifying early signs of deterioration before severe weather strikes, agencies can take preventative action to reduce road closures, maintain access to essential services and keep supply chains moving. After an event, having an up-to-date record of infrastructure assets also accelerates recovery by helping authorities identify what has been damaged and requires replacement.

Historically, delayed inspections and incomplete asset data have contributed to avoidable road safety risks. What changes when those blind spots are removed through continuous monitoring?

Pittman: Removing data blind spots through continuous monitoring delivers both operational and public safety benefits. Agencies can maintain a highly accurate digital inventory and deploy maintenance resources where they are most needed, rather than relying on periodic manual inspections.

It also shifts decision-making from historical assumptions to near real-time evidence, enabling agencies to identify and address risks before they contribute to accidents or service disruptions.

When maintenance budgets are stretched, how does automated roadway intelligence change what gets fixed first?

Pittman: Automated roadway intelligence allows agencies to prioritise maintenance based on objective risk data rather than visibility or perception. Without AI, limited resources often flow towards the most visible locations, potentially leaving high-risk defects elsewhere unaddressed.

By identifying and ranking critical safety issues across the network, AI helps agencies allocate funding more effectively, reduce emergency repair costs and improve safety outcomes for all communities.

What is the risk of not adopting these systems at scale, particularly in fast-growing or climate-exposed regions?

Failing to modernise infrastructure monitoring creates a growing strategic vulnerability. As populations expand and extreme weather events become more frequent, traditional inspection methods struggle to keep pace with maintenance demands.

The result is a widening backlog of repairs, increased infrastructure failures and a greater likelihood of public safety incidents. Over time, these disruptions can have significant social and economic consequences.

Beyond efficiency, where do you see the greatest direct human safety impact from this technology?

Pittman: The greatest safety impact lies in accident prevention. By using AI and crowdsourced imagery to identify hazards such as damaged guardrails, obscured signs and poor sightlines, agencies can address risks before road users encounter them.

The technology also improves worker safety by reducing the need for manual roadside inspections, limiting exposure to live traffic. In addition, maintaining clear signage, functioning streetlights and visible crossings helps protect vulnerable road users, including pedestrians and cyclists.

While emergency response and long-term infrastructure reliability also benefit, preventing accidents before they occur delivers the most immediate and meaningful safety outcome.

How will lessons from the Western Cape deployment inform adoption in other emerging markets, and how might AI-powered digital inventories evolve over the next decade?

Pittman: The Western Cape deployment demonstrates how advanced data analytics can help governments strengthen climate resilience while maximising constrained budgets. It provides a practical model for other emerging markets facing similar infrastructure and environmental challenges.

Over the next 5-10 years, AI-powered digital inventories are likely to become a core component of smart city strategies. As they integrate with connected vehicles, sensors and broader urban systems, they will support more responsive infrastructure management, helping cities improve mobility, resilience and public safety at scale.

Her work laid the foundation for modern microbial risk management, enabling regulators and utilities worldwide to move from reactive ‘detect and correct’ approaches to predictive, prevention-led water safety strategies. QMRA has since been incorporated into global drinking water standards, including guidelines by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA).

Prof Rose said the award reflected decades of collective progress in microbial risk science and its role in safeguarding public health.

“Safe water is one of the world’s most fundamental yet unevenly distributed resources critical to sustaining human life,” she said. “As microbial risks continue to evolve, strengthening the robustness of our water systems remains an ongoing endeavour to ensure they remain dependable and resilient.”

Prof Rose, currently the Homer Nowlin chair in water research and director of the water alliance at Michigan State University, first rose to prominence during investigations into major waterborne disease outbreaks in the US in the late 1980s and 1990s.

Her research identified cryptosporidium as the cause of the 1993 Milwaukee outbreak, one of the largest recorded waterborne disease incidents in US history, which sickened more than 400,000 people.

The findings exposed critical vulnerabilities in conventional water treatment and monitoring systems, prompting Prof Rose to pioneer QMRA as a framework for quantifying infection risks and strengthening water safety standards.

Beyond drinking water, her work advanced the safe adoption of water reuse globally. Prof Rose advised California regulators on potable reuse frameworks that later became reference models for reuse standards in countries including Australia and Spain.

Her contributions have also had a lasting impact in Singapore. Prof Rose worked with PUB, Singapore’s National Water Agency for more than two decades and played a key advisory role in the development of NEWater, Singapore’s recycled water initiative launched in 2003. She served on the NEWater expert panel between 1998 and 2002 and later chaired PUB’s external audit panel from 2003-2019.

PUB said QMRA has strengthened Singapore’s ability to use water quality surveillance data to guide treatment processes and ensure compliance with international drinking water standards.

Prof Rose will receive the award, which includes a gold medallion and S$300,000 presented in partnership with Temasek Foundation, during the opening ceremony of Singapore International Water Week (SIWW) 2026 on 16 Jun 2026.