AI and Satellite imagery to tackle climate challenges

Space Intelligence

National Outcome: We value, enjoy, protect and enhance our environment

It’s said that climate change is the main challenge of our lifetime. There’s a greater need than ever to accelerate our zero-carbon transition and protect the natural environment before it’s too late. AI is playing an important role in this race against time, providing scientists, governments and conservationists with the data they need to make informed decisions and develop progressive, net-zero strategies.

Significant biodiversity loss is occurring as a the result of human activity, specifically changes in land use. However, the emergence of Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) allows the environment to fight back by conserving and replanting forests and restoring our peatlands. However as the majority of NBS sites are large and often remote, the only cost-effective way to monitor them is by using satellites.

Space Intelligence is a specialist in satellite data analysis and undertakes projects around the world, some of them close to home in Scotland. Supported by the Scottish Government through the Can Do Innovation Challenge Fund, Space Intelligence developed an AI system that runs on its satellite analysis platform to map Scotland’s land cover on an annual basis. Partnering with NatureScot, the system identifies and tracks changes to the ecosystem year-on-year, providing stakeholders with evidence of environmental deterioration or recovery – information that confirms if Scotland is on track to meet its climate change targets. In a similar project, Space Intelligence was funded by NESTA to use AI to map riverine forests with the Scottish Wildlife Trust, to support planning a Nature Recovery Network. The company has also recently been awarded a place on the Data Driven Innovation (DDI) Post COVID AI Accelerator Programme.