Plugging the data gap: Google and UN Environment unveil freshwater monitoring app

Photo by Google Earth

UN Environment, Google and the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre have unveiled a groundbreaking web-based platform that fuses big data and environmental science to monitor global freshwater ecosystems, opening the door to a new era of data-rich analysis that could reshape how we measure humanity’s environmental footprint.

The publicly available, free platform brings together Google’s expertise in satellite data, cloud computing, earth observation and artificial intelligence, UN Environment’s scientific knowledge, and the data analysis expertise of the Joint Research Centre, to show how water ecosystems are changing over time.

The app was presented during the United Nations Science-Policy-Business forum, taking place in Nairobi this weekend ahead of the world’s most influential environmental forum, the Fourth UN Environment Assembly. That meeting will focus on how to harness innovation to tackle our existential environmental challenges, and sustainable consumption and production.

UN Environment and Google hope to eventually establish a platform for open-source data and analysis of more of the Sustainable Development Goals, the roadmap towards ending poverty, ensuring equality and guaranteeing the survival of our planet, that was adopted by United Nations Member States in 2015.

Jillian Campbell, chief statistician at UN Environment, said the app would enable countries to track […]

Full article: Plugging the data gap: Google and UN Environment unveil freshwater monitoring app