AI In Environmental Monitoring

These are all lost ponds - mapped, remembered, and ready to return.   Once, nearly every field had a pond. They weren’t just decorative - they were vital for holding water, supporting biodiversity, and structuring the landscape. Frogs, newts, dragonflies, and wild plants thrived in them. Farmers relied on them.   Over time, many were filled in for modern agriculture - quietly erased. But their footprints remain.   At ArchAI, using historic maps from 1900 and our AI-driven process, we’ve traced these ponds across the country. Our Lost Landscapes dataset shows exactly where they once existed, and helps identify which ones can be brought back.   Restoring ponds doesn’t have to be speculative. The data shows where they worked before, and where they could work again. It’s one of the clearest, most targeted opportunities for ecological recovery at scale.   Let’s stop guessing. Let’s bring them back, field by field.   #LostLandscapes #NatureRestoration #PondRestoration #GhostPonds #FreshwaterHabitats #AI #GIS #Ecology

How AI is helping protect giraffes 🦒 For decades, tracking individual giraffes meant sketching spot patterns in notebooks or spending weeks poring over photographs. Now artificial intelligence has given conservationists in Tanzania a faster way, reports Abhishyant Kidangoor. The Wild Nature Institute, co-founded by biologists Monica Bond and Derek Lee, has teamed up with Microsoft’s AI for Good Lab to launch Project GIRAFFE, an open-source tool that uses algorithms to identify and re-identify individual animals by their markings. “It can now be done in minutes, and we can have the output the same day we collect the data,” says Lee. The technology matters because survival and reproduction rates, movements, and social behavior can only be measured if scientists know which giraffes they are seeing. Once-healthy populations have dwindled across Africa due to poaching and habitat loss. The Masai giraffe, Tanzania’s national animal, has declined by half in recent decades. Project GIRAFFE allows researchers to process millions of photographs gathered during annual surveys. The data help pinpoint strongholds for the species and reveal landscapes where giraffes are struggling. Protecting their habitat brings wider gains, since many other species share the same ecosystems. “A big part of our mission is to see that people and the giraffes are both thriving together,” says Lee. 📰 story: https://lnkd.in/gnArQm2U

Tagging whales with drones is transforming marine research—and it’s a powerful example of how AI, robotics, and advanced sensing are accelerating conservation efforts. Fascinating? For decades, studying whales required researchers to approach animals by boat, a process that was expensive, time-consuming, and often limited by weather and ocean conditions. Today, drones are changing the game. Researchers can deploy tags, collect respiratory samples (“whale blow”), measure body condition, and monitor behavior from the air with far less disturbance. Some drone-based photogrammetry systems can measure whale size and body condition with centimeter-level accuracy, providing critical insights into health, pregnancy, nutrition, and population trends. Consider the scale of the challenge: 🐋 Blue whales can reach over 30 meters (100 feet) in length and weigh more than 180 metric tons. 🌊 Many whale species migrate 5,000–20,000 kilometers annually, making long-term monitoring incredibly difficult. 🚢 More than 80% of global trade travels by sea, increasing the importance of understanding interactions between marine life and shipping routes. 📊 AI-powered image analysis can process thousands of aerial images, identifying individual whales, estimating population sizes, and detecting behavioral changes far faster than traditional manual methods. 🌍 The ocean absorbs approximately 25–30% of human-generated CO₂ emissions, making healthy marine ecosystems increasingly important in the fight against climate change. The future is even more exciting. Imagine autonomous drone networks working alongside satellites, underwater acoustic sensors, autonomous surface vessels, and AI models that continuously analyze data streams from across the world’s oceans. Researchers could: ✅ Track migrations in near real time ✅ Detect health issues before populations decline ✅ Reduce ship strikes through predictive routing ✅ Monitor the effects of climate change on feeding grounds ✅ Build digital twins of marine ecosystems for simulation and planning This is where technology becomes more than innovation—it becomes a force multiplier for conservation. The same advances in AI, edge computing, sensors, and autonomous systems that are transforming industries are now helping scientists better understand and protect some of the largest animals ever to live on Earth. Every tag deployed, every image captured, and every AI model trained brings us closer to a future where technology and conservation work hand in hand to protect our oceans for generations to come. #AI #Drones #Whales #MarineBiology #OceanTech #Robotics #Conservation #ClimateChange #MachineLearning #AutonomousSystems #DigitalTransformation #Innovation #Sustainability #WildlifeConservation #BlueEconomy #FutureTech #DataScience #EnvironmentalScience #TechForGood #ResearchAndDevelopment

When we talk about the power of AI, we often focus on its business benefits. But its most profound impact lies in how it helps us solve complex, real-world problems - including helping us understand and protect our natural world. A great example of this is happening right now off the coast of Australia. Our Google Research team—led by Data Scientist Lauren Harrell—headed out to the Sunshine Coast alongside our partners at Griffith University to listen to our oceans. Sound is critical underwater. It is the primary way marine mammals communicate, navigate, and survive. But listening to the ocean means processing thousands of hours of audio. To help scientists, we are using AI to analyze audio captured by specialized underwater microphones (hydrophones). AI automatically scans these massive recordings to identify the complex, beautiful songs of migrating humpback whales. By instantly translating this noise into clear tracking data, we can help scientists map migration paths in real-time. This is critical for predicting shipping lanes, preventing ship collisions, and understanding how climate change and ocean noise are impacting these gentle giants. I’m proud that this work is happening right here in Asia-Pacific. Through Google’s Digital Future Initiative, this underwater microphone network will soon span a massive 2,000-kilometer stretch of the Australian coastline, and I'm excited to see how else AI can solve our region's biggest challenges. Photo credits: Ste Everington (@steunderwater) Johnny Gaskell (@johnny_gaskell)

In the past few years, I have worked quite a lot on GreenTech and climate AI and have shared resources on the same. Today is one such day again!   Chile's Nahuelbuta mountain range is an awe-inspiring tapestry of biodiversity, teeming with unique species such as the Darwin's fox. However, this ecosystem constantly faces threats from human activities, wildfires, and encroachment. With less than 1,000 Darwin's foxes remaining, their existence is hanging by a thread. Enter the "Nature Guardian" initiative – a collaborative marvel involving Rainforest Connection (RFCx), deploying solar-powered devices enriched with AI to monitor and safeguard this invaluable ecosystem vigilantly. "Nature Guardian" is supported by Huawei’s #TECH4ALL, which is always committed to enable an inclusive and sustainable digital world. These ingenious devices have evolved into the unseen sentinels of this diverse landscape, ceaselessly engaged in environmental monitoring, tracking animal calls, and swiftly identifying threats like illegal logging and poaching. Meticulously positioned high in the treetops, they provide round-the-clock coverage, seamlessly linked to a cloud-based AI platform. One of the project's noteworthy facets lies in its AI analytics, expertly trained to recognize various animal species. This empowers researchers to scrutinize their distribution and behaviours, offering invaluable insights for adaptive conservation measures. What I also found interesting is the system's ability to issue real-time alerts via a mobile app if any threat is detected, enabling rapid responses to protect this delicate ecosystem. As of August 2021, five Nature Guardian devices and ten edge devices had been deployed, covering 30 km2 of Nahuelbuta forest. However, the project's vision doesn't halt here; it's expanding to Chiloe Island and the coastal regions of the Valdivian forest, where sightings of the elusive Darwin's fox have been reported. This endeavour underscores the power of collaboration among organisations like RFCx, Bioforest, Etica en los Bosques, the Ministry of the Environment for Chile, and Huawei. In an era where climate change and forest degradation pose significant challenges to ecosystems worldwide, their combined expertise in conservation and technology is contributing towards preserving Chile's unique biodiversity. #innovation #technology #artificialintelligence #greentech #techforgood

Our recent study, led by Shahrzad Gholami from the Microsoft AI for Good Lab in collaboration with Derek Lee and Monica Bond from the WILD NATURE INSTITUTE , has just been published in Nature Scientific Reports The paper introduces GIRAFFE , Generalized Image-based Re-identification using AI for Fauna Feature Extraction , an AI-powered system for wildlife re-identification in conservation. Animal re-identification is a critical tool for conservation. It enables researchers to estimate population size, study movement and behavior, understand demographic trends, and evaluate whether conservation programs and policies are working. Historically, identifying individual animals has often required physical tags, collars, or time-consuming manual review of images. These approaches can be expensive, invasive, and difficult to scale. With GIRAFFE, we show that AI can re-identify individual giraffes using only photographs. By analyzing the unique spot patterns of each animal, the system can identify known individuals and help organize new individuals for expert review. This makes wildlife monitoring faster, more scalable, more cost-effective, and more accessible to conservation teams in the field. This is a powerful example of how AI can help protect biodiversity by giving conservationists better tools to understand and protect species in the wild. Paper: https://lnkd.in/dhHuQTk3

It’s not just a pretty picture—there’s a full ecological restoration plan behind it. At Western Sydney University’s Hawkesbury campus, what if we transformed open concrete drains into natural, #NaturePositve waterways. The first photo with the concrete drains is the actual photo. The other AI-generated visuals you see are backed by detailed modelling that factors in climate, soil, hydrology, and vegetation to simulate ecological succession and produce a full restoration blueprint. This isn’t just landscaping—it’s habitat creation with measurable outcomes. For every 100 metres of restored channel, we estimate: 1–2 turtle nesting zones 1–2 frog breeding habitats, supporting species like Limnodynastes and Litoria A 5–10% increase in aquatic and terrestrial macroinvertebrate diversity 10–15 native plant species introduced, boosting structure and pollinator resources Multiple microhabitats created for birds, skinks, dragonflies, and microbats At these levels, there is no increased risk of flooding. These numbers scale up significantly across kilometres of restored urban drains and farm waterways—and we’ve built this to be scalable across the country. #WSUNaturePositive2029 #1MillionTurtles #NaturePositive #WetlandRestoration #TurtleConservation #FrogHabitat #BiodiversityGains #EcologicalEngineering #WSU #AIforNature

The Future of Forest Protection: LiDAR, Drones & AI 🌲 Forests are one of our most powerful climate solutions, absorbing carbon, regulating ecosystems and supporting biodiversity. But managing them at scale has always been a challenge. For decades, forest monitoring meant teams on foot, manually measuring trees with handheld GNSS receivers, slow, labour-intensive and incomplete. That’s changing fast. NatureTech is revolutionising forest management. Today, LiDAR-equipped drones, AI and real-time data processing allow us to scan 25,000 hectares in hours, with unprecedented precision. 🔍 How it works: ⚬ Drones fly over forests, scanning with LiDAR to capture high-resolution 3D data on trees, terrain and carbon storage. ⚬ AI processes millions of data points, automatically detecting tree species, health status and early signs of decay. ⚬ Real-time monitoring enables us to act before problems escalate, whether it’s illegal logging, pest outbreaks or fire risks. What this means for the future of forests: ✅ Carbon Accounting Becomes 100% Transparent Governments and businesses can now track exactly how much CO₂ forests are absorbing. No more estimates, just verifiable carbon data, making carbon credits and nature investments far more credible. ✅ Smarter, More Resilient Forests AI-powered models will soon predict threats before they happen, allowing teams to prevent pest outbreaks, fire risks and tree diseases, before they spread. ✅ Rewilding at Scale Self-flying drones will restore degraded landscapes, not just mapping forests, but actively dispersing seeds and monitoring regrowth, supercharging rewilding efforts. ✅ The End of Hidden Deforestation Every tree cut, every road built, every illegal clearing will be instantly detected, traced and exposed. Transparency will drive accountability like never before. The biggest shift will be that nature will no longer be seen as a passive resource, but as a living, data-rich infrastructure that we can protect, restore, and invest in with confidence. If we get this right, we could be entering a golden era of forest restoration, where tech finally works for nature, rather than against it. (Source: DJI / SLAM LiDAR / Mistra Digital Forest)

Australia is deploying drones to replant trees in areas devastated by bushfires, with each drone capable of sowing up to 40,000 seeds per day—far surpassing traditional reforestation methods and supporting ecosystem recovery as climate-fueled wildfires intensify. These drones release biodegradable seed pods containing native seeds, nutrients, and protective coatings. Guided by GPS and AI, they accurately target ideal planting locations, reducing the need for human labor in dangerous terrain. This innovative, scalable approach speeds up forest regeneration, enhances carbon capture, and helps restore wildlife habitats—demonstrating how cutting-edge technology can work in harmony with nature to repair environmental damage. Follow The Proptech Connection for more content & insights about tech in the built environment + stay up-to-date by joining 59,000+ others that receive our weekly newsletter: https://lnkd.in/g_e4QVDH

#ashishdrishti🧿 🌱 When Forests Burn, Can Technology Grow Them Back? In 2023, the world lost nearly 3.7 million hectares of tropical primary forest—an area roughly the size of Switzerland. Wildfires, deforestation, and climate change are destroying forests faster than traditional replanting efforts can restore them. Now imagine this: A devastated mountainside after a wildfire. No workers. No trucks. No shovels. Instead, a swarm of AI-powered drones flies overhead, firing biodegradable seed pods into the soil with remarkable precision. This is not science fiction. Japan, along with several global research teams and reforestation startups, is exploring drone-assisted afforestation and reforestation technologies to accelerate ecosystem recovery in hard-to-reach areas. 📊 Why Drones Matter Traditional tree planting: A worker typically plants 800–1,500 saplings per day Difficult terrain increases cost and time Access to post-fire regions is often dangerous Drone-assisted reforestation: Can map terrain using AI and LiDAR Identify optimal planting zones Deploy thousands of seed pods in a single day Reach inaccessible mountain and wildfire-affected regions Some global drone reforestation projects claim capacities of 10,000–40,000 seed pods per day, dramatically reducing planting time and labor requirements. 🌍 The Bigger Picture According to the UN: The world needs to restore 1 billion hectares of degraded land by 2030. Forests absorb approximately 7.6 billion metric tons of CO₂ annually. Reforestation is considered one of the most cost-effective climate mitigation strategies. Yet planting trees is only half the battle. Studies show that seed survival rates can vary significantly depending on soil conditions, rainfall, species selection, and ecosystem management. This is why modern drone systems increasingly combine: ✅ AI mapping ✅ Soil analytics ✅ Climate modeling ✅ Precision seed deployment The future is not just about planting more trees—it's about planting the right tree in the right place at the right time. Sometimes the most powerful use of artificial intelligence isn't replacing humans—it is helping nature heal itself. #ClimateChange #Reforestation #Drones #ArtificialIntelligence #Sustainability #EnvironmentalInnovation #FutureTech #Japan #ESG #Research --- 📚 References 1. United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (2021–2030) 2. Global Forest Watch – Global Forest Loss Reports 3. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) – Forest Resources Assessment 4. World Economic Forum – Drone Reforestation Initiatives 5. Nature Climate Change Journal – Forest Carbon Sequestration Studies 6. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Reports on Land Use and Forestry