Google helps mayors figure out where to plant trees

Drought: +387%. Climate change: +153%. Land slip: +121%. These are the environmental terms that have had the greatest increase in searches on Google in the last year. Numbers released on the occasion of Earth month and which are accompanied by frequently asked and trending questions that we address to the search engine such as “What is climate change?”, “What is global warming?” and “What can we do about climate change?”.

For some time Big G has been offering solutions based on innovative technologies, including Artificial Intelligence, capable of offering governments, companies and citizens useful information to adopt structural changes or in daily habits – just think of the many tools for sustainable mobility on Google Maps – aimed at combating climate change. today atEnvironmental Insight Explorer – the company’s framework program for these projects – a tool has been added which promises to be very useful, for example, to Italian mayors: it is called Tree canopy.

Step back. The Environmental Insights Explorer remains the general framework: it is a free online platform designed for local administrators and used in many cities around the world, including several Italian ones. It serves to measure, plan and attempt to make choices and implement policies that are useful a reduce carbon emissions and overall pollution in cities. Mountain View developed it in partnership with the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy international alliance. It relies on Google’s comprehensive global map data to estimate carbon emissions from buildings and transportation, and renewable energy potential.

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Tree Canopy is therefore a new piece of this scheme: it exploits the aerial images and theartificial intelligence For identify heat islandshelping first citizens, aldermen, local commissions and anyone with administrative and technical skills a plan tree cover to counter them. In the United States, Tree Canopy has already been used successfully in projects dedicated precisely to identifying vulnerable areas in which to plant trees and improve the arboreal volume of parks, as well as to redistribute public transport stops and other services in tree-lined areas. All with the aim of mitigating the risks of heat strokes for the population and making cities “breathe” better, besieged by heat “hot spots” caused by traffic and urbanization – therefore pollution – the absence of green areas, poor ventilation and sudden increases in temperatures.

Tree Canopy will be available for another 350 cities around the world including the Italian cities of Milan, Rome, Bologna, Ancona, Assisi And Vicenza. The long-term goal, as with all other IEE projects, is to combat poor air quality in areas with the highest rate of overbuilding. In fact, as various reports show, the alarm over extreme heat is destined to affect an ever-growing number of people around the world in the coming years, especially in geographical areas that have so far been little exposed to the problem.

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Not just administrations. There is also something new for ordinary users who do their searches on Google every day: to help them find authoritative, useful and timely information, Bog G has in fact also activated new alerts on Google Search for contribute to correct information and warn users in case of excessive heat waves. “Together, these efforts will help people and communities around the world adapt to rising temperatures. We will continue to find new ways our technology and tools can bring relevant and timely information about extreme weather.” to billions of people and help cities and organizations build infrastructure that mitigates the effects of climate change for all.”