New artificial intelligence tool helps forecast Amazon deforestation

Nearly 10,000 square kilometers of the Brazilian Amazon, an area the size of Lebanon, is at high risk of being cleared, according to a new tool using artificial intelligence technology to help forecast deforestation before it actually happens. Named PrevisIA (from the Portuguese previsão for "forecast" and IA for "artificial intelligence"), the tool analyzes images provided by European Space Agency satellites, and through an algorithm created by the Brazilian conservation nonprofit Imazon, finds areas prone to deforestation. Imazon studies published in scientific journals show that 95% of accumulated deforestation in the Amazon is located within a 5.5-kilometer (3.4-mile) radius of roads; 90% of annual fires occur 4 km (2.5 mi) from illegal roads built in the middle of the forest for logging, mining and land grabbing. In 2006, the non-profit started to monitor satellite images manually to find these roads before the area around them was cleared of trees, but the laborious and time-consuming work prevented it from scaling up -- a problem that the new technology aims to solve. The tool mapped so far the Brazilian Amazon, but could potentially be expanded to any forested area on Earth, the developers say.