The Federal Environment Agency has launched its own application laboratory for artificial intelligence and big data (KI-Lab). The KI-Lab was opened by Federal Minister for the Environment and Consumer Protection Steffi Lemke and the President of the Federal Environment Agency (UBA) Prof. Dr. Dirk Messner and is intended to lay the foundations for using artificial intelligence (AI) to make it easier to analyse large quantities of environmental data (Big Data). All authorities in the Ministry of the Environment will use the AI Lab for their work.
"The potential of AI for environmental protection is immense".
Steffi Lemke, Federal Minister for the Environment and Consumer Protection: "The potentials of AI and Big Data are immense - also for the protection of the environment, climate and nature. Harnessing them in a sustainable way is an important community task and part of responsible digitalisation. The new AI Lab is innovative and enables the authorities of the environment department to develop customised applications for challenges - for example, for the more efficient evaluation of satellite data in order to better plan the expansion of wind and solar power."
UBA President Prof. Dr. Dirk Messner: "Digital transformation and artificial intelligence are a paradigm shift in environmental protection as well. In future, we will be able to analyse environmental data completely differently and better. To do this, we must use new data science methods for environmental and sustainability research and build up competencies across the entire environmental department. Otherwise we will not keep pace with the so important digitisation of the administration. Our application lab is a unique experimental and design space for the analysis of environmental data."
New lab to benefit all UBA departments
The KI-Lab uses data science methods and technologies to better utilise the heterogeneous, complex and so far often difficult-to-access data stocks in environmental administration. This includes earth observation and measurement data, process data for administrative and enforcement optimisation and many other environmental, nature and radiation protection data.
Initial examples of the possible application of AI include the identification of wind and photovoltaic plants in satellite data for better planning. Also, illegally offered and protected animal and plant species can be better tracked down in online trading platforms.
With the KI-Lab, all agencies of the environment department can develop AI applications based on environmental data - in addition to UBA, these are the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation, the Federal Office for Radiation Protection and the Federal Office for the Safety of Nuclear Waste Disposal.
Exploring the use of AI for the environmental sector
The AI Lab is an initiative within the framework of the BMUV's Environmental Digital Agenda and part of the BMUV's 5-Point Programme "Artificial Intelligence for the Environment and Climate". 26.4 million euros are available for this from funds of the Federal Government's Economic Stimulus and Future Package (2021). Around 30 employees will be employed at the Leipzig, Berlin and Dessau-Roßlau sites, initially on a temporary basis until 2025.
The AI Lab places particular emphasis on the responsible handling of data and develops solutions for the resource-saving use of AI and Big Data (Responsible & Green AI). The focus is on various aspects of sustainable software: from the most energy-efficient use of hardware to the appropriate and ethical selection of data and algorithms, to usability by third parties in the context of open source.
Digitisation of the Federal Environment Agency to be accelerated
The KI-Lab is currently working to establish effective national and international networks and collaborations on the topic of AI and its use in the environment department. The aim is to build up methodologically and technically relevant competences throughout the environmental department. The authorities want to learn from each other and thus give impetus to the digital transformation in environmental administration.
"In implementing example applications (use cases), we are working closely with very different experts from the environment department: from marine research to radiation protection to atmospheric physics in urban areas. It is important to us that the KI-Lab has both an external and an internal impact," says Robert Wagner, head of the KI-Lab at UBA.
Further information is available at www.umweltbundesamt.de.
