Interest in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its potential applications has grown exponentially in the past few years. Artificial intelligence is now at most people’s fingertips, with the launch of programs such as ChatGPT, MATLAB, and Cortana. With this increased interest a few questions have been posed, what is AI and how can it be used in the world of environmental conservation? According to Enterprise AI, Artificial Intelligence is “the simulation of human intelligence processes (perceiving, reasoning, and learning) by machines, specifically computer systems.” Artificial intelligence has been used to predict human behavior and is even able to carry on conversations. Environmental conservation efforts are becoming more effective and proactive instead of reactive. The recent advancements are being made in AI systems to increase efficiency and accessibility. Artificial intelligence has been used in “expert systems, natural language processing, speech recognition and machine vision.” With the increased interest in AI systems, many have investigated areas where AI can be applied to solve environmental problems. A growing number of environmental conservation programs have adapted such technologies across the globe in places like Zambia, Uganda, and Cambodia. These programs range from protecting endangered species to tracking resource loss.
AI based environmental programs are also being implemented locally in the DMV area. In Maryland, artificial intelligence’s role in environmental protection has been explored by a variety of organizations. A local Chesapeake Bay conservation non-profit, the Chesapeake Conservancy is a leading organization in utilizing AI for environmental research. Environmental experts have found that the use of AI can play a major part in the conservation of the world’s land, air, and water. For example, artificial intelligence has allowed for increased ability to track weather patterns and predict climate changes in the atmosphere. A major win for the expansion of AI in conservation was after it was used to gather data on the disappearing forest lands and tree canopies in Maryland, which led to forest protection legislation being introduced in the General Assembly. The Chesapeake Conservancy has implemented the use of artificial intelligence to gather research for their published studies on water quality, fish population, and creating maps for land cover. Conservation scientists postulate that the information uncovered by the AI system mapping will be able to aid in land use decisions, inform on best farming practices, and hopefully contribute to improving the health of the Chesapeake Bay in the next decade. AI has aided scientists in creating watershed and land use mapping. Usually, watershed and land use mappings take years of researching and surveying to complete and artificial intelligence has shortened the time it takes to complete the mappings. AI has not only been an extremely helpful tool in mapping watersheds, another area where the use of artificial intelligence has proven to be beneficial for the environment is in the field of wildlife conservation.
The use of artificial intelligence in wildlife conservation has been increasingly explored with numerous conservation efforts being implemented across the globe In Zambia, Uganda, and other countries in Africa, AI systems have been used to protect wildlife such as elephants and tigers from poachers. This system called the Protection Assistant for Wildlife Security (PAWS), works by predicting where poachers will strike based on past behaviors. Then the system provides the land managers recommendations to stop poachers. The first field tests of the PAWS system were conducted in Cambodia, where rangers were attempting to reintroduce tigers into the area after their population declined as a result of poaching and other external factors. In the first month of patrols using the AI generated poaching behaviors map, the rangers found 1,000 poaching snares and confiscated additional poaching materials. After reviewing past data, the rangers saw that with the introduction of the AI system they removed over twice the number of poaching snares. The PAWS system is currently combined with another AI conservation effort, the Spatial Monitoring and Reporting Tool (SMART), which is being implemented in over 800 protected areas in the world. Other ways that artificial intelligence is being used for wildlife conservation efforts is tracking global water loss and using the data to create programs to combat the potential impact it will have on plants and animals. A study done in Brazil using AI tracking systems revealed that the country had lost over 15% of its surface water over the last 30 years. This resulted from a growing population, economic crisis, deforestation, and climate change. The AI survey also revealed that the Negro River, a major tributary the to the Amazon River had lost around 20% of its surface water. In addition, the Brazilian side of the Pantanal has lost 74% of its total surface water. Loss of surface water has far-reaching effects. For example, the Pantanal in Brazil is home to 4,000 species of plants and animals; its recent loss of surface water will result in a major decrease in population due to lack of water available for the inhabitants. AI has not only been a useful tool in understanding the severity of water loss that is occurring, but its potential has been explored in protecting endangered species.
Artificial intelligence has furthered the efforts in wildlife protection is the locating of whale pods and koala clings. Locating whales is important for wildlife conservation because it helps researchers to know where to delineate protected waters for whale populations. Artificial intelligence systems have been used specifically to track humpback whales by using 14 years of acoustic recordings to identify their songs to locate pods. The AI was even able to find a rare occurrence of the whale’s song, which allowed the researchers to protect even more whales because the scientists were able to use the AI data collected to find pods in locations that were not previously known. In Australia, artificial intelligence has been a major help in Koala protection as their population has been on a decline as a result of dog attacks, habitat degradation, car accidents, and fires. The use of AI has helped to gather information on the location of Koalas for conservation efforts and to quickly locate surviving koala populations after natural disasters, such as the recent wildfires that devastated Australia leaving many Koalas trapped in the fires.
There are negative trade-offs that come with using AI. A potential hindrance to its adaptation is the enormous amount of computation power that emerging AI technologies require.The AI processing centers have a high energy demand and leave a large carbon footprint in their wake. MIT researchers studying energy demand found that one processing system uses enough energy to power 50,000 homes UMass researchers reported that training for one AI system can emit more than 626,000 pounds of carbon dioxide. Another area where AI could potentially cause more harm than good in terms of sustainability is by widening the economic gap between developed countries with access to AI and developing countries, despite countries such as Zambia with their wildlife conservation AI programs many countries lack the infrastructure to effectively implement AI for conservation and sustainability purposes.
The expansion of technology specifically in the field of artificial intelligence has strengthened environmental conservation efforts and has expedited the implementation of the programs using the quick processing abilities of AI. High processing technology systems have been shown to be taxing on the environment due to the high energy demand to process all the data. Understanding the burden AI can have on the environment it is clear that the benefits outweigh the risks, artificial intelligence has empowered environmental conservation efforts to be more proactive than reactive with predicting capabilities of artificial intelligence.
References:
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About the Author:
Shemaiah Kentish, Green Business Certification Intern
Shemaiah Kentish is from Virginia Beach, Va and is currently a senior at George Mason University majoring in Environmental and Sustainability Studies with a concentration in Equity and Environmental Justice. Her interest in green businesses was sparked when she became a small business owner herself and wanted to find ways to limit product and packaging waste. In her free time Shemaiah likes to paint, watch movies, garden, bake, and travel.
