切萨皮克湾修复, Conservation to Benefit from New Approach to Data Mapping

First map of ground-mounted solar arrays provides new possibilities for land management 规划和决策

WASHINGTON – Defenders of 野生动物 and 十大赌博正规老平台 have made a dataset available for the first time that will benefit the restoration and 保护 of the Chesapeake Bay watershed and will have implications far beyond. This project was funded by a grant from the Grayce B. 克尔基金公司. Using artificial intelligence (AI) and satellite imagery, the organizations have mapped ground-mounted solar arrays – a collection of multiple solar panels – to get an understanding of how solar is being built across the entire Chesapeake Bay watershed.

一个完整的, up-to-date inventory of solar arrays has never been available for the Chesapeake region before. This groundbreaking data will allow researchers in a variety of fields to understand patterns of solar development and estimate their environmental effects for the region. 初步数据可供下载 在这里 并且可以在web地图应用程序中查看 在这里. The website allows viewers to explore the mapped solar arrays over high-resolution imagery. 请参阅网站的示例图像 在这里.

“This is the first time that a detailed map of solar arrays has been made available for the entire Chesapeake watershed,迈克尔·埃文斯说, senior 保护 data scientist at Defenders of 野生动物. “Using artificial intelligence to map features like solar arrays is a breakthrough for land use management, 保护, 可再生能源, and we’re excited to make these data publicly available. While we are interested in better understanding land use dynamics in the Chesapeake Bay watershed, other researchers can use these maps to solve other important 保护 challenges.”

The AI model developed by Defenders and 十大赌博正规老平台 uses free and publicly available 10m satellite imagery produced by the European Space Agency, which collects new images of the Earth about every five days. The model can be used to easily update maps of solar arrays as satellite imagery is collected and will allow tracking of the growth and location of solar energy across the landscape. The organizations plan to publish the model and code later this year.

“The best part of this model is that it can be easily scaled up for mapping solar arrays for the entire United States,Kumar Mainali说, geospatial data scientist at 十大赌博正规老平台. “The beauty of AI is that it learns more from a bigger dataset. 因此, an exercise of scaling up an AI model with more data makes it more reliable in detecting solar arrays. 考虑到数据的性质, this model can be used to generate the solar array mapping rapidly every season.”

在切萨皮克, one area of interest is understanding how land use changes associated with solar energy development affect water quality in the watershed. Clean watersheds are vital in providing clean drinking water for people and wildlife, as well as providing important habitats for plants and animals.

The ways that a growing solar energy footprint impacts water quality in the Chesapeake Bay watershed are complex. 一方面，一方面, solar panels can increase runoff that carries pollution because they are impervious surfaces ‒ surfaces that are not easily penetrated by water. 另一方面, depending on the land use that the panels are replacing and other factors such as soil type or vegetation cover underneath the panels, 它们可能有利于水质. For example, replacing agricultural land with solar arrays may result in using less fertilizer. 重要的是, an increase in solar capacity will also likely lead to a decrease in greenhouse gas emissions and other deposition of air pollutants to the watershed as renewable energy replaces fossil fuel energy sources (e.g., replacing coal-fired power plants with cleaner energy sources).

The new solar array data will be an input to the high-resolution land cover and land use datasets being produced by 十大赌博正规老平台 and the University of Vermont as part of a Chesapeake Bay Program agreement. The Bay Program uses this data in the Chesapeake Assessment and Scenario Tool (CAST) ─ a model that accounts for nonpoint sources of sediment, 氮, and phosphorus pollution to waterways and tracks efforts to reduce pollution by implementing Best Management Practices.