{"id":93847,"date":"2019-05-21T18:03:49","date_gmt":"2019-05-21T18:03:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.microsoft.com\/?p=433050"},"modified":"2019-05-21T18:03:49","modified_gmt":"2019-05-21T18:03:49","slug":"how-scientists-are-confronting-environmental-challenges-with-the-help-of-ai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/2019\/05\/21\/how-scientists-are-confronting-environmental-challenges-with-the-help-of-ai\/","title":{"rendered":"How scientists are confronting environmental challenges with the help of AI"},"content":{"rendered":"

Counting trees<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"mountains<\/p>\n

Using AI and machine learning, <\/span><\/span>SilviaTerra<\/span><\/span> maps and monitors forests<\/span><\/span><\/a>, yielding data about trees across the continental United States. The high-resolution, tree-level map<\/a> of the United States is the first of its kind. It gives conservationists and landowners critical details to sustainably manage forests at a fraction of the time and cost of traditional surveys.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Growing more with less<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"man<\/p>\n

Farmers face an uphill battle as <\/span><\/span>arable <\/span><\/span>land and water supplies dwindle, while the global population grows. <\/span><\/span>FarmBeats<\/span><\/span>, a program that uses Microsoft<\/span><\/span>\u2019s<\/span><\/span> cloud and AI<\/span><\/span><\/a> technologies to help farmers sustainably improve yields and lower costs, evaluates sensor data a<\/span><\/span>nd aerial imagery a<\/span><\/span>gainst weather forecasts and crop predictions to enable data-driven agricultural practices.  <\/span><\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

Identifying snow leopards by their spots<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"a
Photo by SLCF Mongolia\/Snow Leopard Trust<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Snow leopards<\/span><\/span> are rare,<\/span><\/span> with a<\/span><\/span>n estimated<\/span><\/span> population of just 4,000 to 6,000 <\/span><\/span>in the wild<\/span><\/span>, and remote <\/span><\/span>camera trap <\/span><\/span>photography is one of the only reliable ways to study the<\/span><\/span>ir behaviors<\/span><\/span>. Historically, researchers have sifted through thousands of photos<\/span><\/span> manually<\/span><\/span> to <\/span><\/span>find<\/span><\/span> snow leopard <\/span><\/span>images<\/span><\/span> and <\/span><\/span>use that data to <\/span><\/span>protect the species from poaching, mining, climate change and other threats<\/span><\/span>. <\/span><\/span>Now researchers a<\/span><\/span>t the Snow Leopard Trust a<\/span><\/span>re using a <\/span><\/span>Microsoft AI automation tool<\/span><\/span><\/a> <\/span><\/span>to <\/span><\/span>automatically <\/span><\/span>classify images in minutes rather than hours<\/span><\/span>,<\/span><\/span> <\/span><\/span>combining<\/span><\/span> years of data into a comprehensive <\/span><\/span>database<\/span><\/span>. This allows<\/span><\/span> them to <\/span><\/span>focus <\/span><\/span>on advancing conservation science instead of manually poring through images. <\/span><\/span> <\/span><\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

Protecting key watersheds<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"satellite
Photo provided by Chesapeake Conservancy<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Scientists are using Microsoft\u2019s AI and cloud <\/span><\/span>technolog<\/span><\/span>ies<\/span><\/span> <\/span><\/span>to <\/span><\/span>create<\/span><\/span> <\/span><\/span>highly detailed maps<\/span><\/span><\/a> to help conserve the world\u2019s water resources. <\/span><\/span>Chesapeake Conservancy<\/span><\/span><\/a>, <\/span><\/span>supported by an AI for Earth grant, is working to integrate AI technol<\/span><\/span>ogy to produce high-resolution land cover and land use maps for precision conservations to improve water quality throughout the Chesapeake Bay watershed. With this data, the Conserv<\/span><\/span>ancy is supporting progress in the restoration<\/span><\/span> of the bay. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Counting trees Using AI and machine learning, SilviaTerra maps and monitors forests, yielding data about trees across the continental United States. The high-resolution, tree-level map of the United States is the first of its kind. It gives conservationists and landowners critical details to sustainably manage forests at a fraction of the time and cost of traditional surveys. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":93848,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[137,50],"class_list":["post-93847","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-microsoft-news","tag-environment","tag-recent-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93847","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93847"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93847\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93848"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}