With regular extreme weather events flooding our coastal towns And burn our rural communitiesGoogle, in its magnanimity, has developed a new set of online tools that officials and community organizers can use in their efforts to avert climate change-induced catastrophe.
Google is already sending out severe weather alerts to users in affected areas, providing helpful and easy-to-understand information about the event via the search page – whether it’s a winter storm warning, flood, tornado warning or other. The company has now added extreme heat alerts to this list. Googling event details will return everything from expected start and end dates of the heatwave to medical issues to be aware of during it and how to mitigate their impacts. The company partners with the Global Heat Health Information Network (GHHIN) to ensure that the information provided is both accurate and applicable.
It’s a lot easier to keep citizens comfortable in hot weather if the cities themselves aren’t sweltering, but our love affair with urban concrete hasn’t been conducive to that goal. That’s why Google developed Tree Canopy, a feature of the company’s Environmental Insights Explorer app, which “combines AI and aerial imagery so cities can understand their current tree cover and better plan conservation initiatives.” urban forestry,” according to Wednesday’s post.
Tree Canopy is already in use in more than a dozen cities but, with Wednesday’s announcement, the program will expand significantly to nearly 350 cities around the world, including Atlanta, Sydney, Lisbon and Paris. Google also offers similarly designed AI to help plan the installation of “cool roofs” that reflect the sun’s heat rather than absorb it like today’s tar paper roofs do.
