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AI and satellite data improves the resilience of cities
CategoriesSustainable News

AI and satellite data improves the resilience of cities

By Zarkon Group,

Spotted: Cities around the world are preparing for the likelihood of more frequent and severe heat waves in the coming years, with large urban areas at risk of turning into heat islands that are up to eight degrees Celsius warmer than surrounding rural areas. Yet many governments are wholly unprepared for the speed at which climate experts predict changes will occur.

Sustainable solutions are a must, and green walls and roofs, along with urban forests, could be some of the most effective. One company trying to make management of those assets easier and more effective is Luxembourg-based greentech company WEO. WEO uses artificial intelligence analysis of publicly available satellite imagery to provide low-cost, highly detailed analysis of the built environment.

WEO’s platform is available in two formats: Resilient Cities and Risk Management. The platform provides city planners and utility companies with insight into where heat islands occur, where so much soil is covered that runoff is at dangerous levels, and where trees pose a risk to power lines. WEO’s analytics improve the quality of lower-resolution data from satellite imagery and then the company uses machine learning to extract advanced insights for risk assessment and monitoring.

Resilient Cities’ analysis provides detailed data up to one metre in resolution that helps urban planners and local governments measure the growth and health of trees, track canopy cover, and reduce rainfall runoff. ‘Risk Management’, meanwhile, reviews the proximity of trees to utility infrastructure, maps areas of potential flooding, and highlights areas of especially flammable vegetation that should be cleared to prevent wildfires.

The affordability of the service is an important part of WEO’s goal to make cities more resilient, with the company highlighting that its technology is significantly cheaper than laser scanning, drones, or aerial surveillance. Additionally, the company emphasises its desire to work with partners for long-term projects that make the best, and fullest, use of its regularly updated data.

Satellites are increasing safety and efficiency in a number of industries, with innovations spotted in Springwise’s library including wildfire prevention and tropical weather forecasting.

Written By: Keely Khoury

Reference

Carbon investments backed by AI and satellite data
CategoriesSustainable News

Carbon investments backed by AI and satellite data

By Zarkon Group,

Spotted: There are a huge number of organisations working to reduce global emissions – with schemes for everything from capturing carbon from the air to sequestration and carbon capture for shipping. Now fintech Earthbanc has a new idea — land regeneration. The company argues that by transitioning to regenerative agriculture on 2.5 billion hectares of land, it would be possible to sequester all global emissions produced; and they have a plan to incentivise regenerative land management practices.

However, one issue with regenerative land programmes is transparency – it is very difficult to verify that a scheme is actually sequestering a specified amount of carbon. Without having this information, it is impossible to effectively use carbon credits to contribute to land regeneration schemes. Earthbanc’s platform solves this problem by using artificial intelligence (AI), trained on satellite remote sensing data collected in collaboration with the European Space Agency, to automatically audit the carbon reduction impact of land regeneration projects and to verify carbon credits.

Farmers register on the Earthbanc platform, and the platform automatically measures the carbon sequestration on their land. Companies can then invest in the project using carbon credits to offset their carbon use. Earthbanc uses blockchain technology to keep a transparent record of carbon reduction so that companies buying carbon credits can verify their value. Using credits, the platform effectively allows companies to deposit their carbon “into a bank-like vault.”

Earthbanc CEO Tom Duncan explains that “What makes Earthbanc’s solution so potent in combating the climate crisis is its basis on expert knowledge of land restoration and paying farmers in areas of the world where the impact is the greatest – both for nature and for people.” He adds that they have many corporate buyers, “who are buying carbon on our platform every month. We’re selling hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of carbon, so a farmer can get paid for their ecosystem services.”

Avoiding meat and driving electric vehicles will only take the world so far in reducing carbon consumption. It is also necessary to sequester carbon released into the atmosphere. Luckily, there is no shortage of projects finding innovative ways to do this, including a project that turns sequestered CO2 to stone and an artificial leaf that captures carbon dioxide.

Written By: Lisa Magloff

Reference