Google has launched Tree Canopy, an artificial intelligence-based platform that aims to combat climate change and its consequences on urban environments.
The new tool will use AI to cross-reference real-time weather data, historical information and identify the hottest areas of cities.
The system developed by Google will be made available to the bodies responsible for local control to allow them to act preventively in support of the population in the periods of the year in which particularly hot spots arise.
A need, that of preventive action, which is fundamental to counteract phenomena such as fires, which can spread and create real dangers for cities.
However, Tree Canopy will also be a way for users to receive timely alerts.
This is thanks to the already active process of notifications that Google sends automatically to Android smartphones, for example in the event of a flood or earthquake.
These notifications will show users the date, start and end times of the heat wave, the affected areas and areas to avoid in order not to risk health problems.
The prevention advice will be developed together with the Global Heat Health Information Network, a body that will take care of making them as accurate and applicable as possible.
But not only that: artificial intelligence itself will be able to provide,
through the Tree Canopy Lab, a mapping of the city to choose the areas where to plant new trees and in which they can grow better and with fewer risks related to the heat.
To date, Google's analysis covers 350 urban centres, including cities such as Lisbon, Paris, Sydney and Atlanta.