In a video published for the United Nations Security Council, David Attenborough, the famed naturalist, stated that climate change was “the biggest threat to security that modern humans have ever faced.” As such, did you know that artificial intelligence is being leveraged in the fight against climate change? This article will outline the ways in which AI is making a difference in disaster prevention.
Disaster Prevention
1. Distributed Energy Grids
Given the current tension between renewable and non-renewable energy, it is imperative that societies improve the predictability of energy requirements. Furthermore, the increased frequency of extreme weather events and continued political tensions exacerbate the tension even more. And for this reason, artificial intelligence is being leveraged to enhance the predictability of energy demand, improve energy storage, efficiency, load management, and the integration of renewable energy.
Nvidia is one of the leading companies in this pursuit. The company works with electric utilities companies in the United States. They combine data on the state of the electric grid with local weather conditions to identify distribution lines caked with ice that may be in danger of failing. In doing so, they are able to dispatch repair crews in time. Moreover, the company has also built machine learning models that take advantage of computer-vision systems to monitor aging equipment on power lines. These are only a few of the projects currently deployed, but funding for these types of interventions is significant.
2. Smart Agriculture & Food Systems
At Sparkd, we’ve previously talked about the interventions that AI can adopt for agriculture, through AgriTech, from vertical farming to management of insect production, which is essential to maintaining a healthy ecosystem. In its entirety, AI-improved agriculture includes big data management, early detection of crop diseases and issues, livestock upkeep, and optimisation of supply and demand. The promise is to improve the proficiency of resource management, in the effort of lessening waste, and building more sustainable systems and increasing resilience to extreme climates.
The figure above illustrates how the progress of data management, technology, and AI is currently furthering and improving Smart Farming. The underlying power of this new combination is the boost of smart decision making. Data-driven agriculture and AI techniques set the foundation for a more sustainable future.
3. Weather & Climate Prediction
“Climate Informatics” is a new field that converges on climate science, data science, and artificial intelligence. Moreover, there exists an open community by the same name that holds annual conferences to discuss various research around climate science. Of these research, one of the most promising leads is the use of AI to transform weather forecasting.
Historically, the field of weather forecasting has required high performance energy-intensive computing to function. But the use of artificial intelligence, and deep learning networks have allowed computers to run faster and incorporate much more complexity into the calculation of real-world scenarios. Furthermore, AI techniques help correct the biases that appear in models, extract the most relevant information, and avoid data degradation. In essence, these models can predict extreme events with more accuracy and be used to model impacts.
Conclusion
The application of AI into the global fight against climate change is unsurprising given the flexibility of AI and the consequences of climate change. This article provided examples on how AI is used for disaster prevention, the improvement of energy management, smarter agriculture, and more reliable weather predictions. But these are not the only ways AI can help with building a more sustainable future. Perhaps this article inspires you or your company to be thinking of ways to combat climate change with the use of AI. Be sure to keep up-to-date with Sparkd, where we aim to give you the most up to date information on all things AI!
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Check out our other articles:
- AI and Vertical Farming = Recipe for Sustainable Food Production
- Machine Learning and AI in the Food Industry
Photos:
1. “From Smart Farming Towards Agriculture 5.0” by Agronomy
- Power pylons at sunset by Matthew Henry
- THE CLIMATE IS CHANGING – SO SHOULD WE! #ACTNOW by Markus Spiske
Author: Michelle Diaz
Sources:
- Climate Change ‘Biggest Threat Modern Humans Have Ever Faced’, World-Renowned Naturalist Tells Security Council, Calls for Greater Global Cooperation
- Energy Grids Plug into AI for a Brighter, Cleaner Future
- From Smart Farming towards Agriculture 5.0: A Review on Crop Data Management
- Climate Informatics
