Given the rapid industrialization that has occurred within the past few centuries in China, many of its cities are facing immense environmental challenges, including high air pollution. Given the topography of the country, some of its cities lie within smog-trapping mountain ranges, exacerbating the problem. In partnership with the Beijing Environmental Bureau, IBM China launched the Green Horizons initiative in 2014 in order to provide solutions to cities in order to better manage their air pollution. Green Horizons focuses on the cognitive Internet of Things, wherein computing systems are fed streams of real-time air quality data and analyzed by machine learning algorithms. The Internet of Things plays a large role in feeding data into the algorithms from monitoring stations on the ground. Both visual maps of pollutant source and dispersion, as well as pollution forecasts, are rendered from such cognitive computing and IoT data acquisition. Forecasts and visuals are based on PM2.5 concentration and provide readings for up to 10 days in the future, 72 hours ahead of time. Green Horizons is also looking to provide cities with renewable energy forecasting, which would help planners make decisions as they transition from a carbon-based energy society. While Green Horizons provides a wide range of tools to municipalities, it is unclear whether the forecasts and visuals are provided to the public, who could greatly benefit from receiving these from a health perspective.
Green Horizons. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.research.ibm.com/green-horizons/
Categories
Artificial Intelligence, Data, Ecological Monitoring, Monitoring, Pollution
Air Pollution Robot
The dangers of air pollution to human health are well documented, though the traditional methodology of collecting and reporting on sample lags behind the need to keep abreast and regulate air pollution in a meaningful amount of time. The use of drones and robots have been identified by researchers as resources that can be tweaked […]
Artificial Life, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Ecological Monitoring, Industry/Natural Commodities, Lifestyle, Monitoring
Telematic Rivers
Erica Kermani’s artwork seeks to answer a central question: if rivers were seeing an equal, living entity, would humans take issues like climate change threatening them more seriously? In his year-long art exhibition in 2017, Kermani, in collaboration with Diana Salcedo & Jeana Chesnik, created a new forum of interaction between humans and rivers to […]
Climate Change, Ecological Monitoring, Lifestyle, Monitoring, Pollution, Visual Technologies
Co-occupied Boundaries
Art is easily found in nature but rarely is what considered art today inherently natural. The concept of co-occupied mediums that serve to be both functional for nature and aesthetically pleasing to people is being actively explored by Asya Ilgun and Phil Ayres, from the CITAstudio at The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts. In […]
Climate Change, Ecological Monitoring, Lifestyle, Monitoring, Pollution, Visual Technologies