Earth Systems develops AI tech for environmental assessments using satellite imaging (Courtesy of the Jacksonville Business Journal) — Invasive species, trees and livestock. All of which can cause problems for land management and development.
Earth Systems, a multi-state environmental engineering firm with offices in Jacksonville, has developed technology using satellite imagery, remote sensing and artificial intelligence to do environmental analytics.
Rick Ofsanko, the founder and owner of Earth Systems said the new line of technology was started by the leader of their Remote Sensing/AI service line, Jennifer Martin, and Regional President of the Mountain Region Jon Aamot.
The technology allows Earth Systems to conduct broad-scale assessments to identify potential environmental problems.
Though obtaining aerial images of land is already done via helicopters and drones, Ofsanko said using Earth Systems mechanisms is much more cost-effective.
“Historically, what we compete against are people that are using either helicopters or drones, and they’re quite expensive, and so our product can do everything that they can do,” Ofsanko said. “In this case, like we work for this agency, and we give them data showing what they need, what they need through our system, as opposed to going out and using helicopters or drones.”
The company is looking to implement more of the technology for Florida clients.
“In the state of Florida, we have a lot of invasive species of vegetation, that’s a hot button issue, and she’s developing a product for some clients that will help us use satellite imagery for that, to look at them, look at what needs to be removed, and then develop a plan, remotely through satellite imagery,” Ofsanko said. “Sometimes it’s just a matter of getting an idea of cost, but also, things beyond that.”
But much of the imagery is not apparent to the naked eye.
Using a variety of satellite vendors, Earth Systems collects a multitude of images captured on different wavelengths including infrared and other non-visible spectrums.
“So, we can tease out, each different plant species has its own spectral signature that it may just look like vegetative cover from a normal picture, but it really teases out the different species that are associated there,” Aamot said. “And then that’s an existing service line that Earth Systems does, is goes out there and eradicates those and rehabs that back to what it would be naturally.”
The satellite technology can be used for a variety of projects including coastal work entailing the restoration of seagrass or modifying the depth of certain areas, Aamot said.
In Florida, Earth Systems aims to use the technology in helping reduce treks through the mud and swamps for tough-to-access areas.
“… historically, we have boots on the ground, covering the project area with different instruments or just with visual identification,” Aamot said. “So just the swampy areas or the coastal areas that need to be accessed by boats and divers, so this can all be done without that and that’s probably the biggest benefit from a state like Florida.”
Potential clients can run the gamut from industrial and commercial clients to state agencies and oil and gas companies, Earth Systems owner said.
Ofsanko said local utilities are a significant client base the company is targeting, with a new product in development by Martin for identifying problematic tree encroachments.
“A big deal for whether it’s FPL or Duke Energy is tree growth that’s impinging on power lines. It creates a lot of risk for them, and currently, they either do it visually through drones, expensive measures, but she’s developing a product where we can go in and she can see, not only trees that are close, but she can identify trees or vegetation that is at a risk for falling.”
The technology would assess the risk by assessing how healthy the trees are and how tall they are, and work as a predictive model.
Ofsanko said the AI service-line leader could use tech to assess certain trees and say “you’re not at risk today, but you will be at risk in a year, because this tree we’ve seen that It’s grown, say, five feet over the last year, it’s 30 feet now, it’s going to be 35 feet in a year.”
The Earth Systems leaders said while environmental work is their niche they anticipate the technology can be adapted to much more uses.
“There’s so many different areas we could branch into, but for right now, yeah, we are definitely focusing on the environmental that’s kind of our world,” Aamot said. “… no pun intended, but the sky’s the limit for where we can take this.”