The nations around the world are working hard to conserve our planet. There are endangered species, wildfires, melting glaciers, global warming, climate change etc., that are causes of concern with regard to the sustainability of the planet. Initiatives of governments and private firms across the world are evidence that AI in the current world, play a significant role in achieving not only environmental but all other sustainable development goal- from ending hunger and poverty to achieving sustainable energy and gender equality to protecting and preserving biodiversity.  

India is not behind in adopting AI for conservation of the environment. Many of the initiatives by the government and private organizations are witnessing effective results in the process. This week, as the world celebrate Environment Day 2022 with the theme “Only One Earth”, let us look back some of the key AI use cases in India for environment conservation. 

Geospatial data platform from Ambee: 

As climate change is becoming real, companies have started calculating risks, making decisions and investing in products to adapt and minimise impacts with information-rich geospatial climate data. To their disappointment, there is a shortage of such accurate, actionable, and high-resolution data. This is where the platform comes in handy.   

Gspatial.ai records information from millions of sensors and from a constellation of earth observatory satellites all the way from 1990. The AI comes in right at the start of the data pipeline in formatting scientific data, preprocessing, and extracting data from complex satellite images. AI also helps in deriving meaning from unstructured data while making long-term predictions on climate change, climate-related risks, trends, and a lot of predictive analytics all the way to the end of the century for any given location across the world. 

Read more about the project here.

AI-powered app for monitoring and refilling water bodies: 

Tamil Nadu Water Resources Minister Duraimurugan announced flood mitigation steps recently and the development of an app with artificial intelligence (AI) technology targeted at protecting water bodies. TN minister Duraimurugan announced the plans in the Assembly, stating that the first phase would cost Rs 250 crore in Chennai, Kancheepuram, and Tiruvallur. The second phase, he said, would involve work in the Chennai and Chengalpattu regions at an estimated cost of Rs 184.22 crore.

Read more about the project here.

LifeLands (LiLa):  

LideLands (LiLa) is an innovative digital tool that uses satellite imagery, AI, and geographic information system (GIS)-based analytics and visualization to detect and create green-blue corridors and restore ecosystems rapidly. In addition, the LiLa tool provides ready-to-implement solutions for land degradation and the creation of carbon sinks, thereby enhancing land, food and water security.

Read more about the project here.

AI-enabled monitoring system for forest conservation: 

The National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC), a programme under the auspices of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), has engineered a new monitoring system to observe forest cover change and combat deforestation. By combining optical remote sensing, geographic information system, artificial intelligence and automation, the new system allows monitoring experts to detect small-scale deforestation to further limit the damage caused to forests and to improve the frequency of reporting from once per year to once per month.

Read more about the project here. (Under govt initiatives) 

Gateway to Indian earth observation: 

ISRO’s Geo-portal, Bhuvan is providing visualization services and Earth observation data to users in public domain. It has grown horizontally in diverse areas of applications and vertically in terms of number of image and map services including high-resolution satellite data. Presently, more than 6000 map services offered by Bhuvan are being used under various applications.

Read more about the project here.