Improved Google Earth aids climate change efforts

Description

Google demonstrated a new technology prototype at the continuing Copenhagen climate conference that enables online, global-scale observation and measurement of changes in the earth's forests.

While the United Nations proposed a forest incentive and monitoring framework in the conference – the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries (REDD) – the framework will require each nation to have the ability to accurately monitor and report the state of their forests over time in a way that can be verified independently.

However, many tropical nations targeted by the framework lack the technological resources to do so; hence Google developed the prototype with help from governments and nonprofit organizations.

The Google solution involves the use of satellite imagery data. For instance in Google Earth, one can fly to Rondonia, Brazil and observe the rate of deforestation from 1975 to 2001.

This type of imagery data – past, present and future – is available around the globe. Deforestation, unfortunately, cannot be measured through Google Earth.

The technology makes it possible for scientists to analyze raw satellite imagery data and extract meaningful information about the world's forests, such as locations and measurements of deforestation or even regeneration of a forest.

Google collaborated with Greg Asner of Carnegie Institution for Science and Carlos Souza of Imazon to develop the technology. Their programs, Carnegie Landsat Analysis System and Sistema de Alerta de Deforestation, are used across South America to analyze change in forest cover.

Google will re-implement the softwares of Mr. Asner and Mr. Souza to find out if these could offer access to a high-performance satellite imagery-processing engine running online in the “Google cloud.” They will also look into the possibility of gathering all of earth’s raw satellite imagery data – petabytes of historical, present and future data – and make them easily available.

The Google solution will also speed up analysis of deforestation on a desktop computer using cloud-based computing. It will provide security, privacy and transparency, since a cloud-based platform allows users to control access to data and results. It is also seen as a promising tool for forest monitoring, reporting and verification in support of REDD.

The technology prototype is available only to a small set of partners for testing purposes in the meantime. Google expects to make it available for a broader public in 2010 as a not-for-profit service...

Original URL

http://www.ecoseed.org/en/general-green-news/copenhagen-conference-2009/copenhagen-leading-stories/5613

http://www.ecoseed.org/en/general-green-news/copenhagen-conference-2009/copenhagen-leading-stories/5613