We are excited to have partnered with AfriClimate AI, a grassroots community dedicated to harnessing the power of AI for a sustainable, prosperous and climate-resilient Africa 🌍✨! We hope this will inspire further collaborations between our two regional AI-for-climate networks!
Published:
We are happy to share that we have partnered with [ELLIS Machine Learning for Earth and Climate Sciences Program](https://ellis.eu/programs/machine-learning-for-earth-and-climate-sciences) 🌍✨!
Event date:
Webinar with Abdul Shaamala, Queensland University of Technology. Green infrastructure (GI) is critical in enhancing urban resilience, mitigating heat stress, and improving environmental sustainability. However, optimising the placement and configuration of green elements such as trees, parks, and vegetative corridors, requires a data-driven approach that accounts for microclimate variations, urban morphology, and long-term ecosystem benefits. This talk explores how artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and geospatial analysis can be leveraged to optimise GI for urban cooling and climate adaptation. Specifically, it delves into tree optimisation strategies that enhance shade provision, reduce urban heat islands (UHI), and improve outdoor thermal comfort. By utilising computational models, including optimisation algorithms and thermal analysis, cities can strategically position vegetation to maximise cooling benefits while balancing urban development needs.
Event date:
Webinar with Sherrie Wang, MIT. Remote sensing maps are used to estimate regression coefficients relating environmental variables, such as the effect of conservation zones on deforestation. However, the quality of map products varies, and -- because maps are outputs of complex machine learning algorithms that take in a variety of remotely sensed variables as inputs -- errors are difficult to characterize. Thus, population-level estimates from such maps may be biased. We show how a small amount of randomly sampled ground truth data can correct for bias in large-scale remote sensing map products. Applying our method across multiple remote sensing use cases in regression coefficient estimation, we find that it results in estimates that are (1) more reliable than using the map product as if it were 100% accurate and (2) have lower uncertainty than using only the ground truth and ignoring the map product. Paper: https://arxiv.org/abs/2407.13659
Event date:
Webinar with María J. Molina, University of Maryland. Machine learning can be used for Earth system prediction, or to study the uppermost limit of prediction skill theoretically achievable given the system's initial state or other factors, otherwise known as predictability. In traditional numerical weather prediction frameworks, we solve the governing partial differential equations starting from an initial state. This initialized prediction framework usually involves three stages: 1) generating the initial conditions of the Earth system, 2) running the mathematical representation of the system on a computer forward in time, and 3) analyzing the output and converting it into a format that is useful for end users. Machine learning can be used to improve each of these individual stages, or to circumvent the three stage framework altogether, and examples of each will be given in this seminar. More time during the seminar will be dedicated to the challenges surrounding subseasonal prediction, which focuses on lead times of three to four weeks, and how we can use machine learning to both uncover potential biases in our initialized prediction systems and how we can bias-correct them.
