"AI empowers and rejuvenates industries", and AI plays an important role in the field of ecological and environmental governance

Recently, the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council held a special promotion meeting on artificial intelligence of central enterprises on "AI empowerment and industrial renewal". The meeting pointed out that the central enterprises should put the development of artificial intelligence in the overall work and plan to accelerate the construction of a number of intelligent computing centers.

In fact, artificial intelligence (AI) technology has become an important part of human society and has a wide range of applications in various fields. Among them, the field of environmental protection is also one of the important applications of artificial intelligence technology. In recent years, many places have achieved remarkable results in the application of artificial intelligence in the field of ecological and environmental governance.

carry outenvironmental monitoring, the governance effect is remarkable

AI can help monitor a wide range of pollutants in the atmosphere, water, and soil. Environmental data is collected through devices such as sensors, which can be analyzed by AI to identify the source and type of pollutants. Using machine learning algorithms, AI can predict pollution levels and provide real-time monitoring and notification systems for rapid response to environmental issues.

In the process of promoting the governance of the Baihe River Basin, Chengdu Shuangliu District quickly solved the problem of tracing the source of water pollutants in the Baihe River with the help of the artificial intelligence watershed management system and the support of "big data + AI + Internet of Things" technology.

According to reports, through model training optimization, 13 sensors are deployed in Shuangliu District within 96 square kilometers of the Baihe River Basin to achieve full coverage monitoring of three types of drainage outlets, including rainwater, domestic sewage, and industrial wastewater. At the same time, according to the AI traceability algorithm, the prediction accuracy has been increased from 40% to more than 80%, providing efficient assistance for accurate timing and precise positioning of environmental law enforcement.

On the basis of the full collection of the city's atmospheric environment monitoring network and air pollution source data, the use of artificial intelligence, big data and atmospheric environment multi-source fusion analysis technology model to develop the Ministry of Ecology and Environment's smart monitoring pilot atmospheric accurate monitoring and analysis application, which can provide scientific decision-making support for the follow-up implementation of targeted treatment measures and realize the air pollution control. peak shaving and frequency reduction".

Help garbage sorting to achieve automation and intelligence

Garbage classification is one of the important tasks in the field of environmental protection. Artificial intelligence technology passedComputer visionTechnology and machine learning algorithms can classify and identify waste, realize automatic processing, and improve the efficiency and accuracy of waste classification.

At present, many countries are trying to use artificial intelligence technology to solve the problem of garbage classification.

SUEZ ENVIRONNEMENT's innovative "Autodiag" solid waste treatment center is responsible for the collection and sorting of solid waste in more than 100 municipalities in the Paris region. It is reported that with this quality control technology, which works continuously and automatically directly on the waste sorting line, the waste sorting efficiency will be higher and the results will be more reliable. Autodiag's intelligent recognition technology has been successfully applied to the classification and detection of plastic waste, with a success rate of about 98.5%. In 2024, the technology will also be used to inspect paper, cardboard and plastic films, among others.

In China, in 2023, 127 sets of garbage classification intelligent monitoring systems in Miaocheng Town, Huairou District, Beijing have all been put into use, and the staff can monitor the garbage classification of 127 garbage sorting stations in 20 communities (villages) in real time in the office, so as to carry out targeted classification work, replace the manual supervision mode with a 24-hour intelligent monitoring mode, save manpower and material resources and improve the sorting rate of domestic garbage.

In Jingdu Jiayuan, Caoqiao Street, Pinghu City, Zhejiang Province, the AI robot replaces people with "intelligence", and when residents can't distinguish the type of garbage when they put garbage, they can ask the robot to answer their doubts about garbage classification in real time, which increases residents' knowledge of garbage classification, improves the accuracy of garbage classification, and also improves the enthusiasm of residents to participate in garbage classification.

According to reports, this artificial robot can open the intelligent supervision mode 24 hours a day, reduce labor costs, and through the closed-loop management of problem discovery, evidence collection, and education, establish a long-term supervision mechanism for garbage classification, and solve the management pain points such as high cost of manual supervision in the community's garbage classification work, difficulty in obtaining evidence in violation of regulations, difficulty in law enforcement, untimely rectification and cleanup, and inaccurate business data, which opens a new model for our garbage classification work and helps accelerate the realization of intelligent, digital governance and precision in garbage classification.

It will play an important role in the process of achieving carbon neutrality

China has a tight time and heavy tasks to achieve the "dual carbon" goal. To achieve carbon peak and carbon neutrality, artificial intelligence technology is expected to play an important role in the future.

In the manufacturing industry, especially in China's manufacturing industry, the application potential of artificial intelligence is underestimated, but the future manufacturing industry is not only large-scale, standardized, but also intelligent; The transportation industry is the world's second largest source of carbon emissions, and there is considerable room for emission reduction, which can help save energy and reduce emissions through smart transportation.

Su Wei, former secretary-general of the National Development and Reform Commission and chief representative of China Meteorological Negotiations, once said: "The integrated development of digital transformation and green and low-carbon transformation is crucial, and it also brings new opportunities for enterprise development. ”

It is understood that a joint team of professors from the School of Science and Engineering of Chinese University of Hong Kong (Shenzhen) proposed the first artificial intelligence model for estimating carbon emissions based on carbon satellites, and finally established a mapping from carbon satellite data to carbon emission data.

Liu Tieyan, an internationally renowned scholar in the field of artificial intelligence and vice president of Microsoft Research Asia, also believes that artificial intelligence technology can help governments estimate carbon emissions, so as to provide reference for making decisions related to carbon emission reduction.

Challenges remain in the application of artificial intelligence

Although AI has a wide range of applications to help environmental protection agencies and related enterprises to carry out environmental monitoring, waste sorting, carbon emission monitoring, environmental planning and environmental governance more efficiently and accurately, its large-scale application also faces some challenges.

For example, data is of great importance to the environment, and only with an accurate understanding of the current situation can we do a good job of total control. However, AI technology needs a large amount of data for training and learning, and at present, AI also needs to strengthen the collection and management of environmental data, and improve the quality and quantity of data to support the application of AI technology.

In addition, some industry professionals said that the upfront investment in artificial intelligence is very huge, whether it is technology, manpower or hardware infrastructure, there is a very huge demand. In addition, the process of building the framework takes a certain amount of time, and the cost of operation is very high, which is very stressful for smaller companies.

However, Zhang Yuzhuo, Secretary of the Party Committee and Director of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council, stressed that it is necessary to promote the central enterprises to achieve better development and play a greater role in the field of artificial intelligence. Therefore, central enterprises in the field of environmental protection can first give full play to their own advantages and make layouts in the field of artificial intelligence.

The central enterprise artificial intelligence special promotion meeting also emphasized that it is necessary to carry out AI+ special actions, strengthen demand traction, accelerate the empowerment of key industries, build a number of industrial multi-modal high-quality datasets, and create a large model empowerment industrial ecology from infrastructure, algorithm tools, intelligent platforms to solutions.