COP15: Google.org Tracks Deforestation In The Cloud

20% of global greenhouse emissions are a result of tropical forest destruction. According to Google.org's blog, "emissions from forest deforestation are comparable to the emissions of all the European Union, and are greater than those of all cars, trucks, planes, ships and trains worldwide. However, deforestation has been difficult to track and quantify until now thanks to Google.org and the Carnegie Institution for Science. Their prototype called CLASlite was demonstrated at the International Climate Change Conference (COP15) in Copenhagen last Thursday on December 10, 2009.

The new technology merges free satellite imagery and powerful analytics to provide an easy to use desktop application called CLASlite. The software will enable organizations across the world to make global-scale observations online and to begin tracking how initiatives and policies impact change or if alternative means are necessary. So far over 70 organizations from non-profit, government, and academics have adopted the software. CLASlite will also the world implement the United Nations new framework Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries, also known as REDD. The initiative provides incentives to developing countries to protect their forests and to stop deforestation. This wouldn't be possible without a monitoring technology like CLASlite. 

How does the technology work?

CLASlite starts by taking satellite imagery data from Google Earth. Although these images shows changes in topography over time, its difficult to abstract quantifiable data to provide more precise measurements. This is where the Carnegie Institution of Science comes into play. Carlos Souze and Greg Asner from the institution developed the Carnegie Landsat Analysis System (CLASlite) that produces deforestation maps similar to the one below:

Running this type of software isn't exactly computer processing friendly so Google.org has stepped in provide online access through cloud computing. The mashup provides terabytes of aggregated raw satellite imagery data from around the World. Running applications like this in the cloud provides many benefits such as scalability, unprecedented speed, lower costs, privacy, security, and transparency to affect greater climate change impact.