3 methods AI can assist communities adapt to local weather change in Africa

Final week on the inaugural Africa Climate Summit (ACS) in Nairobi, Kenya, we joined African leaders and shared our dedication to advance AI options to handle the local weather disaster. This ACS highlighted Africa’s contributions as an essential participant within the collective effort to drive local weather adaptation and mitigation actions globally.

The continent is disproportionately impacted by the consequences of local weather change, from devastating floods to meals insecurity, and infrequently lacks the infrastructure and sources to handle these dangers. The African Union Commissioner for Agriculture, Rural Growth, Blue Economic system, and Sustainable Growth, Josefa Sacko, shared that with out pressing motion, the continent might face a long time of “climate-induced strain on the continent’s economies, livelihoods and nature.” It’s our sturdy perception that AI can assist.

My colleagues and I mentioned our AI solutions, how AI can help African communities and businesses and the potential for additional innovation with coverage makers, entrepreneurs and educational researchers from throughout the continent. The summit highlighted the significance of collaboration in tackling local weather change.

Listed here are three ways in which we’re working with governments, organizations and communities to assist deal with local weather challenges:

1. A partnership-based strategy

We’re working collaboratively with nationwide governments, the UN World Meteorological Organization and NGOs to boost consciousness of our AI tools that may assist help communities affected by pure hazards, equivalent to floods and wildfires, by offering early warnings. Our Flood Hub platform, for instance, shows forecasts for riverine floods in 80 countries, 23 of that are in Africa. That is attainable attributable to our international AI model that may even predict the habits of rivers we’ve by no means seen earlier than, which is essential in lots of components of Africa the place historic knowledge is scarce. We’ll proceed to advance the applied sciences and AI instruments, increase consciousness of such instruments and discover use instances via collaborations.

2. Groups in Africa working for and with communities

Our Google Analysis workforce in Africa has researchers each in Accra, Ghana, and Nairobi, Kenya. These groups are on the forefront of driving innovations to handle societal challenges in Africa. For instance, our workforce is exploring varied ways in which AI may be capable of assist deal with the rising problem of meals safety, from forecasting meals insecurity, to growing meals manufacturing and managing pests. This work is essential as 70% of Africans depend on agriculture and farming for a part of their revenue. Altering patterns in local weather, excessive climate and the financial system are having an unprecedented impression on weak populations, whereas manufacturing in Africa should enhance to fulfill the speedy projected inhabitants development.