BENGALURU: As the earth warms up year after year, climate catastrophes like droughts, heat waves, hurricanes, earthquakes, storms and floods have taken to headlines way too often. To mitigate climate change, an integration between technology and climate data might prove fruitful.
An initiative by NVIDIA, a multinational artificial intelligence (AI) firm headquartered in Bengaluru, and Lockheed Martin aims to improve prediction of extreme weather conditions, aid in climate change projections, and analyse “what if” scenarios accurately. NVIDIA is working on Earth-2 or E-2, an exact replica of the Earth in 3D that will generate real-time data, monitor current global environmental conditions and predict weather patterns.
The concept is based on AI’s digital twins: a virtual representation of the earth that will span throughout its life cycle, use simulations, machine learning and reasoning based on data. As the name suggests, a digital twin is a computational form of a physical object, the earth in this case. The model will help to suggest sustainable solutions and aid scientists, biologists, conservationists, environmentalists, and governments to plan better policies.
Genesys International Corporation is creating such digital twins for all Indian states, the latest being for the government of Andhra Pradesh, which will create twins of land title records in order to reduce land disputes.
Chairman and Managing Director, Genesys, Sajid Malik said to TNSE , “Digital twins can bring a direct impact on urban planning. Issues related to flooding in cities and air quality can also be solved if this model can be applied.” Malik described the concept of digital twins as an “angiogram” of a city.
“Integration of geospatial technology can have a huge impact on shaping our society, running our cities and helping with infrastructure development,” Malik added. The concept of digital twins is not new, the application has been used in multiple industries such as smart cities, factories, manufacturing, retail and construction. The worldwide market for digital twin platforms is forecasted to reach $86 billion by 2028, according to Grand View Research.
Co-Founder and CEO of ARTPARK, Umakant Joshi said, “To build such a system, there needs to be integration between physics and AI, where large variables are involved, which if achieved can simplify climate change prediction.” However, Joshi called accurate digital twin of Earth a “moonshot”, as such models need massive computational power which can only come from quantum computing. TCS also developed a digital twin for Pune in the past, which allowed the government to understand which areas to lock or unlock, when buses should run and schools reopen.