Published Thursday, April  23, 2020

The government participates
in Google contest


By the A.M. Costa Rica staff

The government through the Ministry of Environment presented a proposal to mitigate deforestation before the Google GEO-Google Earth Engine (GEE) License Program.

According to Google, for the winners, GEO offers 25 licenses for the sustained use of Google Earth Engine (GEE) for projects using Earth observation data to address global challenges related to climate change, sustainable development, disaster risk reduction and others.

"These 2-year, full-access licenses aim to empower public sector and commercial recipients to tackle significant societal challenges and improve understanding of our planet," said Google in its statement.

Also, projects selected will benefit from technical support and guidance from GEO Data Science through an outreach program to help projects get the results needed from GEE, adding valuable knowledge and know-how to the program.

The ministry presented a project to solve global problems related to climate change, sustainable development, disaster risk reduction, among others.

According to the ministry, the proposal entitled "Tackling deforestation and forest degradation in Costa Rica using Google Earth Engine" is focused on improving the abilities of public institutions to estimate deforestation and forest degradation in the country using satellite information and the tool image processing using GEE.

"Also, it seeks to attack the problem of deforestation by developing an early warning system that incorporates this technology, as well as improving estimates of forest restoration in the country and the carbon emissions related to these activities," said the ministry in its statement.

According to Google, project leads will be notified via email after all applications have been reviewed and evaluated.

It is expected that within the next few days the ministry will get notice of their win or loss.
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What other contest could the government participate in to improve the country's environment?   We would like to know your thoughts on this story. Send your comments to news@amcostarica.com
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