Google and UN launch new online platform for climate action

The United Nations has unveiled new software, developed in partnership with Google, to help tackle climate change, deforestation and food production issues.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (UNFAO) has launched the Open Foris online platform that will use a high-resolution satellite to send images to monitor changes in land use and forest cover.

Erik Lindquist, forestry officer at UNFAO said: "We make maps that used to take three years in a week... Rather than preparing data to analyze we can spend time probing the data for answers. We're getting to answers much more quickly."

Open Foris will be free of charge and available for everyone, including members of the public.

Citizens will be able, if they want, to monitor misuse of natural resources, and the software will also allow scientists and governments to assess things such as the carbon storage capacity of a certain area.

Lindquist said: "There's a lot of uncertainty surrounding the total forest area in the word, how much forest is being lost and gained, how is the land use changing and what are the effects on carbon emissions... The more we use these tools the more we're going to be sure of whether the situation is improving or getting worse."

Open Foris will also enable the inspection of water resources and it will possibly help with the evaluation of locations for refugee camps, according to the availability of firewood for cooking.

Similar software was launched in the beginning of July by Medecins Sans Frontieres – MapSwipe app – and it enables users to map remote, rural regions which are vulnerable to humanitarian crises, thanks to satellite images.