Last week, the Kohtari team welcomed representatives from the water, regulatory and technology sectors to Kohtari’s demo day in Amble, Northumberland. It was brilliant to have so much engagement across the day – so a huge thanks to everyone that attended.

It was a day of meaningful discussion, collaboration and a live demo of drone-enabled water sampling system in action.

One clear message from the day stood out: collaboration is central to driving water innovation, whether that’s across organisations or between humans and AI.

During the event, we showcased our drone-powered water quality monitoring solution, including our chain-of-custody app that provides time-stamped, geo-tagged data.

We also shared our developing algal bloom monitoring and prediction solution, along with an update on our £7M Ofwat-funded Smart Skies, Healthy Waters project. The questions and insights from everyone in the room will be invaluable as we move to the next stages of development.

The discussions during the day validated our thinking, sparked new ideas and highlighted the willingness across the sector to embrace innovation. 

By making waters digitally visible and combining this with AI-powered intelligent data analysis, we can give operators and regulators the confidence and speed to act, enhancing – not replacing – human decision-making.

Our Pathfinder work with Northumbrian Water

The demo day also marked the end of our four-week pathfinder project with Northumbrian Water, during which we’ve been using our system to sample at Whittle Dene Reservoir and the Amble estuary. Across 20 days, our drone-powered system collected almost 100 samples for same-day lab testing. Combined with aerial imaging and video at both sites, it provided Northumbrian Water with data to an extent that simply isn’t possible with current methods.

The insights gained from this work are already shaping the next stage of our solution development, helping us refine how technology, data and human expertise can work together for the future of water quality monitoring.

Our CEO, James Sumsion reflected on the day:

“It was fantastic to see so much energy and engagement at our demo day in Amble, from water companies, tech providers and the Environment Agency. We’re proud to be working with Northumbrian Water and grateful for their partnership and willingness to embrace innovation alongside us. The water industry is at a pivotal moment of change and days like this reinforce the importance of collaboration and technology in helping deliver smarter approaches to safeguarding our waters.”

If you’d like to know more about our solutions, you can drop us a message, we’d love to hear from you.