Indian organisations using AI to tackle climate change

NEW DELHI: According to Google, two Indian organisations namely Gujarat Mahila Housing Sewa Trust and Villgro Innovation Foundation are presently employing Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), and the Internet of Things (IoT) to address the risks of water scarcity and flooding across the nation.

Among 13 other local sustainability organisations, these two non-profit organisations were also selected to receive support from the APAC Sustainability Seed Fund in order to explore new use cases for AI, ML, and IoT models that can assist in managing flood and water supply concerns in the country.

Sanjay Gupta, Country Head and Vice President of Google India said, “India’s population could be susceptible to severe water-related challenges across its vast geographic landscape and many climatic zones if global temperatures cross the threshold temperature rise of 1.5 degrees Celsius, which the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change expects could occur within this decade.”

With a three million investment from Google, the tech giant helped the APAC Sustainability Seed Fund, founded by the Asian Venture Philanthropy Network (AVPN), in collaboration with the Asian Development Bank. This grant supports regional organisations working hard to develop sustainable solutions and practices and to combat the effects of climate change in APAC, including heat waves, rising sea levels, and biodiversity loss.

Gujarat Mahila Housing Sewa Trust offers training and technical assistance in building technology, and urban governance in order to empower and equip women across India to create sustainable and gender-inclusive cities. With the fund, the organisation focuses on developing an AI-enabled model for building climate resilience in Amalner, Maharashtra to serve as an archetype for small urban towns.

“The project will pioneer the mapping of land use and catchment areas to predict their susceptibility to floods and inundation, which will contribute to protecting natural drainage systems,” said Gupta.

The funding will help the Villgro Innovation Foundation and its partner ‘CultYvate’ on developing a mobile and browser-based application, IoT sensors, satellite data, and AI/ML models that will offer farmers real-time insights and guidance for irrigation management.