Vibrant Planet uses artificial intelligence to map land and improve climate resilience

As human-caused climate change warms the planet, the cost of wildfires increases. According to the National Integrated Drought Information System, the area of ​​forest burned by wildfires increased 320% from 1996 to 2021.

While it would be ideal to develop technologies to slow the progression and impacts of climate change, it is a costly problem that affects every industry and requires adaptive solutions in the short term. Vibrant Planet looks to be one of those solutions. The startup digitizes land mapping and uses artificial intelligence to help its users—fire departments and government agencies—better manage land and better prepare for potential climate events like wildfires.

Vibrant Planet founder and CEO Allison Wolff recently said on TechCrunch’s Found podcast that while proper land management is necessary for food security, human safety, and the protection of biodiversity and natural resources , but the industry is still largely stuck on paper maps, which don’t offer any help. Always accurate. This modeling approach makes it very difficult to calculate and plan for certain climate disasters or events.

Wolf said Living Planet, which is sold as an annual subscription, solves this problem by networking everything and using artificial intelligence to make it easier and faster for users to understand how potential disasters and events unfold.

“We basically put together this very powerful cloud-based data-driven system to make it happen in real time,” Wolf said. “[It’s] The plans with overlapping spaces are very collaborative. “

Online mapping also allows organizations to work together to develop land management solutions that work for everyone. Native tribes can share knowledge of how their ancestors cared for a certain area or land, while conservationists can explain which species on a piece of land need protection, and fire chiefs can talk about fire risks.

The system also allows these groups to test different land treatments, such as controlling fires or clearing certain trees or vegetation, to see how it will affect the land’s resilience so they can find a plan that works best for all parties involved.

Wolfe never thought she would become a startup founder, but she told Found that the problems Living Planet was trying to solve were too big for her to ignore.

“Living Planet is a science and technology platform that is creating what we call a common operational picture of wildfire resilience and natural resilience,” Wolfe said. “We kind of took the term common operational picture from the military and firefighting. . It means exactly what it sounds like, and it means urgency. This is critical, coordinated decision-making. We’re using it in the areas of natural resource management and wildfire resilience building because we have to, it’s very urgent.”