When AI Meets Conservation

Alaska has deployed a state-of-the-art, multi-agency monitoring system at Barry Arm featuring seismic stations, radar, and tidal gauges that can successfully predict tsunami risks after one year of data collection. Working with community businesses allowed the system to adapt operations and demonstrate how real-time landslide detection can provide crucial location data within minutes of an event.

Monitoring satellites are starting to play an important role in helping nations find and address greenhouse gas emissions; from space, new satellites' data and other technologies are identifying methane plumes around the world.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, in 2005, Louisiana and federal officials launched an audacious $50 billion master plan to rebuild the receding coast in an effort to mitigate the effects future storms. These are expensive and massive in scale, and although success is not guaranteed, they're attracting interest from cities around the U.S., and low-lying countries like Bangladesh and the Netherlands. Moving beyond engineered “solutions” of the past, many of these efforts focus on rebuilding land through methods that mimic natural processes for building land mass and vegetation.

The KilimoAI app uses artificial intelligence to help Tanzanian smallholder farmers identify crop diseases through their smartphones, enabling thousands farmers to reduce unnecessary pesticide use. Using the app has lowered operational costs and improved yields by catching crop infections early instead of relying on agro-input shops that often oversell chemicals.

Citizen science initiatives across Europe are using accessible technology to expose toxic emissions that official monitoring misses, triggering institutional responses ranging from increased enforcement to new pollution-control infrastructure.

In response to recurring glacial flooding outbursts, Juneau has implemented an early warning dashboard, $8 million temporary flood barriers, and ongoing scientific research. The solutions are too new to demonstrate measurable flood damage reduction, but increased community participation in preparedness activities is one promising impact.

A collaborative coastal network of signaling devices called StationKeepers is enabling ship operators to receive real-time whale location alerts directly on their navigation screens, resulting in significantly reduced collisions and greater protection for the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale.

Through the work of groups like Creole Solutions, artificial intelligence algorithms and other technologies are integrating the long-ignored language of Creole into their software systems. Technology is making Creole more accessible and allows Haitians to share their culture globally. Social media platforms like Facebook and search engines like Google Translate have already added Creole to their list of language options.

The California-based tech startup Shinkei is combining artificial intelligence with an ancient Japanese method called Ike Jime to kill fish quickly with less pain. Alongside improved fish welfare, the method cuts down waste by keeping the fish fresher for longer.

Fence posts that flash blue and yellow lights while emitting a high-pitched noise when they detect oncoming car headlights are preventing car crashes involving kangaroos and wallabies in Australia. The practice is known as virtual fencing.