UMD Researchers Tapped to Fight Climate Change with Artificial Intelligence

In collaboration with the University of Pittsburgh, faculty in the Department of Geographical Sciences will develop novel AI techniques to improve global forest monitoring

Forest ecosystems store vast amounts of carbon, making them crucial in the fight to stabilize the Earth’s climate. However, deforestation and the effects of climate change could push the Earth toward “tipping points” that lead to rapid global warming, highlighting the urgent need for enhanced monitoring of carbon in forests as well as new methods to enhance forests’ abilities to absorb carbon.

Researchers at the University of Maryland and the University of Pittsburgh have been awarded $750,000 from the National Science Foundation's (NSF) new program on Collaborations on Artificial Intelligence and Geosciences (CAIG) to address this challenge by combining remote sensing data, modeling and artificial intelligence.

The team’s project, titled "Toward Next-Generation Global Forest Carbon Monitoring via Integrated Sensing, Modeling, and AI to Advance Carbon Cycle Science," brings together Principal Investigator (PI) Yiqun Xie, an assistant professor in geospatial information science at the Department of Geographical Sciences, and his colleagues Professor George Hurtt and Assistant Research Professor Lei Ma, who are also Co-PIs of the project.

Learn more in Renata Johnson's story on GEOG's website

Photo collage is from Canva

Published on Wed, Sep 25, 2024 - 2:31PM