This article discusses the benefits of using synthetic images generated through AI in disaster management. it presents examples of usages and discusses the benefits of the approach for privacy, ethics, efficiency and more.
TEMA project convened a high-level webinar entitled “AI 4 Sustainability” on November 15th 2023. The event was moderated by Anna Pizzamiglio from the Lisbon Council, and it counted with the participation of five sister projects representatives, including Konstantinos Alexakis from DECIDO; Andrea Manzi from InterTwin; George Papastenafatos from ExtremeXP; Antonis Deligiannakis from CREXDATA; and George Bouchagiar from TEMA.
In June 2021, Germany experienced the biggest natural disaster in its recent history due to flash floods that hit Western Germany. Experts say that floods like this occur once in 1000 years. Two days before the flood, a warning was issued by the German Weather Service (DWD) predicting 80 to 180 litres of rain per square meter, but that amount was exceeded the following night with 200 litres per square meter. Hot and dry weather in the weeks prior to the floods dried the soil and reduced its capacities to absorb the rainwater, which further intensified the floods in many areas. Places in North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate were particularly affected.
The climate is quickly changing. Almost every day we are informed by television and newspapers about a natural disaster. Just to mention what happened this summer, Greece [1] is enduring the hottest July of the last 50 years due to a heatwave longer than six days. Northern Italy [2] is living in a different situation. Hail as big as tennis balls, winds as fast as a supercar. The Milan sky became dark at midday and the hinterland was affected by a tornado. The Mediterranean [11] Sea reached its highest ever recorded temperature at over 28.71c, beating the previous record of 28.25C set in 2003. The summer will still have much to say.
