Greening of Vilnius city using satellite data and artificial intelligence
Vilnius City Municipality is looking for a smart solution that would help green Vilnius City using satellite data and artificial intelligence.
Context
- The municipal company Vilniaus Planas has prepared a detailed database of city infrastructure objects and greenery, on the basis of which maintenance planning and control is performed. This digital basis for spatial data must be used as a functional framework for statistics and artificial intelligence algorithms that combine data from open-access Sentinel satellites, ground-based measurements, drone aero-photographic data, and even data from mobile applications provided by citizens.
- The most important tasks of remote monitoring of urban greenery are assessment of the condition of grassy and woody vegetation during the summer period (priorities of greenery mowing and watering), untidy dry grass and early bush accumulations permits, adjustments, control), construction in the suburbs (visible construction sites, new buildings, new roads – loss of natural soil and grass cover due to asphalt and concrete cover), etc.
- The most important technological task of operational remote monitoring is the direct integration of satellite identification data into the already existing information systems of the operational management of the city infrastructure, without disrupting their work, but by expanding the functionality.
Solution
- The aim is to create an integrated monitoring system of Vilnius city and surrounding greenery, which would be integrated into the administrative processes of Vilnius city responsible municipal services – from setting construction and felling permit conditions and issuing permits, to monitoring changes in felling and greenery condition, as well as specific forest plots. Upon completion of deforestation, the operational monitoring process should continue until the fact of primary reforestation is confirmed at the felling site.
- The technological solution for monitoring greenery in Vilnius should be based on space imagery from the European Space Agency’s (where Lithuania participates as an associate member) open access Sentinel satellites.
- The aim of this project would be to adapt the technological platform for space image processing and statistical analysis developed in Lithuania to the needs of Vilnius city and suburban greenery and recreational forest monitoring system and to develop specialized algorithms for operational detection of logging and afforestation using Sentinel-1 satellite polarimetric data.