SewerScout: Automated on-site sewage facility detection from aerial imagery to identify failed systems

Section 1: Use Case Identifiers

Use Case ID: HHS-CDC-00015
Agency: HHS
Op Div/Staff Div: CDC
Use Case Topic Area: Health & Medical
Is the AI use case found in the below list of general commercial AI products and services?
None of the above.
What is the intended purpose and expected benefits of the AI?
This business process focuses on the automation of the accurate identification of onsite wastewater systems in state, tribal, local, and territorial (STLT) health jurisdictions. This application scans aerial imagery and uses object detection and image classification models to detect onsite sewage facilities. Initial work is focusing on the ability to identify known systems.

The intent of this project is to identify failed systems, which can be sources of soil and drinking water contamination as well as vectors that carry or transmit disease in the community. This project will allow STLT partners to readily characterize the location and functional status of septic systems without the time and resource consuming effort of visiting each household. The resources in many local health districts (LHDs) are barely adequate to undertake assessments of suitability for new systems (if not entirely contracted out) and most LHDs do not have any program to routinely inspect current systems. If successful, this project will allow state, tribal, local, and territorial public health departments to more easily identify failing septic systems and work to address them. If successful, subsequent work will work on differentiating functional from failed systems. Identification of septic systems during routine operations would help bolster and expedite disaster response efforts after major disasters by having a ready catalog of systems and using pre- / post-disaster satellite images to direct resources in a much more efficient way than on-the-ground door-to-door surveys in rural / remote locations.
Describe the AI system's outputs.
The intent of this project is to identify failed wastewater systems, which can be sources of soil and drinking water contamination as well as vectors that carry or transmit disease in the community.
Stage of Development: Acquisition and/or Development
Is the AI use case rights-impacting, safety-impacting, both, or neither?
Neither

Section 2: Use Case Summary

Date Initiated: 01/2023
Date when Acquisition and/or Development began: 01/2023
Date Implemented: N/A
Date Retired: N/A
Was the AI system involved in this use case developed (or is it to be developed) under contract(s) or in-house?
Developed in-house.
Provide the Procurement Instrument Identifier(s) (PIID) of the contract(s) used.
N/A
Is this AI use case supporting a High-Impact Service Provider (HISP) public-facing service?
N/A
Does this AI use case disseminate information to the public?
N/A
How is the agency ensuring compliance with Information Quality Act guidelines, if applicable?
N/A
Does this AI use case involve personally identifiable information (PII) that is maintained by the agency?
N/A
Has the Senior Agency Official for Privacy (SAOP) assessed the privacy risks associated with this AI use case?
ongoing

Section 3: Data and Code

Do you have access to an enterprise data catalog or agency-wide data repository that enables you to identify whether or not the necessary datasets exist and are ready to develop your use case?
No
Describe any agency-owned data used to train, fine-tune, and/or evaluate performance of the model(s) used in this use case.
The project has not selected the final sources of data but no agency-owned data is anticipated to be used to train the model.
Is there available documentation for the model training and evaluation data that demonstrates the degree to which it is appropriate to be used in analysis or for making predictions?
Documentation is widely available
Which, if any, demographic variables does the AI use case explicitly use as model features?
N/A
Does this project include custom-developed code?
N/A
Does the agency have access to the code associated with the AI use case?
N/A
If the code is open-source, provide the link for the publicly available source code.
N/A

Section 4: AI Enablement and Infrastructure

Does this AI use case have an associated Authority to Operate (ATO) for an AI system?
Yes
System Name: Enterprise Data Analytics and Visualization (EDAV) Platform
How long have you waited for the necessary developer tools to implement the AI use case?
More than 12 months
For this AI use case, is the required IT infrastructure provisioned via a centralized intake form or process inside the agency?
Yes
Do you have a process in place to request access to computing resources for model training and development of the AI involved in this use case?
Yes
Has communication regarding the provisioning of your requested resources been timely?
No
How are existing data science tools, libraries, data products, and internally-developed AI infrastructure being re-used for the current AI use case?
Use of existing data platforms
Has information regarding the AI use case, including performance metrics and intended use of the model, been made available for review and feedback within the agency?
Limited documentation for review