Google.org have announced the launch of their new “high-performance satellite imagery-processing engine” which can process terabytes of information on thousands of Google servers. The results can be seen online.
The platform would let people using this technology monitor whether trees are being cut down in any specified forest. The unique demonstration, on Thursday, at the International Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen showed that the platform might be effectively used for countries that wish to conform to REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries).
The REDD initiative has been proposed by the United Nations and if it is implemented it will require member nations to assess their land use and the state of their forests. This is where the new Google facility could come in extremely useful. Currently the Google Earth system has been providing satellite imagery of forests but it lacks the ability speedily analyse the incoming data.
The new system may not be available to all it would seem. At the moment the new system is in its testing stage. Google have said that they will make it more broadly available in the next year. The clue to its wider availablity comes from a comment made by a representative that it would provide the service as a “not-for-profit service” perhaps an indication that it might be limited to scientist and environmental monitoring agencies.