Latitudo 40 Uses AI and Satellite Data on AWS to Help Cities Plan for Climate Risk

Overview

Latitudo 40 uses AWS cloud computing to process vast quantities of satellite Earth Observation data and applies AI to help cities identify and understand risks such as floods, heat islands and environmental degradation. Naples has used the system to map urban heat islands, Helsinki has used the data to monitor greenery and plan green infrastructure, and urban planners in Milan identified critical infrastructure risks within 48 hours of looking at the data. The firm plans to build digital twins of urban environments and wants to integrate its satellite analytics with IoT sensors.

The challenge

Earth Observation data is rich with insights but often far too complex for most people, such as urban planners, to access or use effectively without being a data scientist or geospatial expert; the source says such analysis used to take many months and involve a bunch of experts.

The solution

Latitudo 40 uses AWS cloud computing to process vast quantities of satellite data securely and quickly. AI analyzes the content of each image, correlates different images and creates new layers of information, and with AWS the firm develops, trains and deploys machine learning models at scale. The platform's predictive modeling lets cities simulate different scenarios and forecast the impact of climate change.

Reported business value

Analysis that used to take many months and involve a bunch of experts is now something cities can do in mere hours. Naples used the system to map urban heat islands, Helsinki used the data to monitor greenery and plan green infrastructure, and urban planners in Milan identified critical infrastructure risks within 48 hours of looking at the data. Founder Gaetano Volpe believes that using AI can slash the costs associated with manual data processing by up to 60%.