What is Big Data doing for the environment?

You will find endless articles and news stories about how rain forests are being destroyed, the effects of global warming, and what would happen if we don’t take special measures to help the Earth. We all need to understand that there is a need to take care of the planet Earth so that future generations can live without suffering like more people in few areas presently. More urges to recycle and investing in vehicles that don’t run on fossil fuel are helpful ideas for environmentalists. However, IT people brought an even better thing for environmentalists to save the environment – that is big data.

We all are aware of how experts rely on big data and for what reasons. Marketers use big data to track trends by reading consumer behavior. How big data can help in saving the environment – that is a question popping in our head. There are ways to rely on collective insights. For instance, animated weather maps used by a news channel were made with big data only.

People who seek measures to protect the Earth’s future generation are interested in leveraging big data to solve issues related to the environment instead of just scrubbing through available data. The number of uncertainties is high when it comes to the way we source big data and apply it. Even if these factors exist, there are some organizations already deploying big data for eco-friendly approaches. Let’s talk with an example-

• Personal wearable technology for monitoring air pollution evaluation

If you check the weather report for your city, there you will see a section that tells about air quality and pollution amounts. This type of data is usually collected by experts using a gauge. They put a gauge somewhere in an area and assume every person living there is absorbing the same amount of contaminants.

Experts from the wearable industry assert that it is possible to attain precise results by letting people wear pollution checkers individually. The next thing to do is using big data-driven resources to analyze the readings and achieve more accurate levels of contamination in the area or places.

Such insights will help local officials in taking measures to enhance the quality of a highly contaminated area. The least polluted area insights will help them determining what is keeping that area safe. Combined data of least and highly polluted areas will help people in taking clean air initiatives.

• Satellite data to protect the oceans

Climatic changes put a direct impact on the world’s oceans. Scientists discovered that warming waters are speedily resulting in coral bleaching and doing permanent damage.

Satellite helps to retrieve data about ship traffic. If big data finds any issues that can trouble oceans, regulatory personnel could take in-charge for future investigations.

We accept the fact that big data can safeguard the planet Earth and plays a significant role in preserving the environment. The phrase of “go green” is understood by people around the world and gets promoted, there is no debate about powerful abilities Big Data delivers to eco-friendly initiatives.

Big Data users know about its versatility that is catering to several different environmental needs. The technology can be used for monitoring vast areas like the Amazon Rainforest, or simply water supply of the small city.

Apart from being versatile in nature, Big Data also offers two key traits for better environmental protection. Number one is that it enables entities to collect as much data as it can and there is no limit. The second is accelerated speed and ease of getting data. Earlier, most of the environmental data were received from individual scientists working out in the field. This was really slow and involved a lot of labor and doesn’t even provide useful data for months and even years. Big Data changed the game by gathering the same data faster for rapid implementation.

How can Big Data protect our Earth?

Here we will discuss some of the ways in which big data can protect our planet-

• Deforestation

Deforestation is the most common and widely spread concern for the environment. Thousands of acres of forests are destroyed every day, which impacts negatively on the environment. It’s something unfortunate that not only removes living trees, but also thousands of other plants and animal species. While some companies are responsible for deforestation, Big Data brings many other options to decrease the negative impact on the environment.

• Endangered species

Deforestation not only harms the environment but also causes trouble for plants and animal species. By cutting trees, animals lose their natural habitat and their survival rate drops significantly. With the implementation of big data, mobile development companies are able to monitor both endangered animals and plant species.

• Oil dumping

Take an instance - Big Data can be used by city departments to find which restaurants illegally dumping cooking oil in the drain.

These are a few ideas to apply big data to safeguard the environment. Cities may get data related to the use of water every month. It will get deeper with big data. When the more details gathered, more ideas to save the environment come in the way. Species will get saved, pollution will get under control, and other potential crisis will be averted.

Find this article useful? Thank you. We would appreciate it if your feedback for this post and tell what are your views about big data usage for protecting the environment. Let’s know the audience in the comment section. If there is anything else you want to share with us, write in comments.