On August 30th, we had the privilege of hosting an AI Deep Dive Session with Essra from Geōde Environmental, where we discussed the exciting potential of AI in streamlining environmental and urban planning. The project aims to aggregate relevant data from various environmental acts, such as the Subdivision Map Act, California Environmental Quality Act, and National Environmental Policy Act, into one platform.
Highlights:
- Purpose: The session explored how AI can help centralize and retrieve key environmental and urban planning data, specifically tailored to a project’s location, while ensuring compliance with both state and federal regulations.
- Challenges: Essra emphasized the need for an AI platform that can scrape public agency websites, including GIS maps, and retrieve only the data relevant to each specific project, avoiding unnecessary data storage.
- AI Applications: We discussed how AI could facilitate the real-time extraction of relevant data from public agencies and streamline the complex processes involved in environmental impact assessments.
Session Insights:
- AI has the potential to greatly reduce the time and effort required to compile environmental and urban planning data, ensuring that smaller projects can compete with larger firms.
- Developing a precision-based AI system that retrieves only the necessary information can make environmental compliance more accessible and affordable for small businesses.
Conclusion:
The AI Deep Dive with Essra opened up new possibilities for using AI in environmental and urban planning. With the right tools, AI can support more efficient planning processes while making critical environmental data more accessible.
Are you interested in being a part of the research team? Contact us at datascience@vanderbilt.edu.