Artificial intelligence will help promptly detect fires and illegal logging in the forests of the Nizhny Novgorod region.

      Photo: Ministry of Forestry of the Nizhny Novgorod Region

      The capabilities of artificial intelligence will be used in the "Digital Forest" system of the Ministry of Forestry and Wildlife Protection of the Nizhny Novgorod Region for the prompt identification of changes occurring on the lands of the forest fund of the region. With the help of AI, automatic analysis and processing of high-precision and high-speed satellite images will be conducted. "We continue to implement artificial intelligence in the regional control system. The technology will allow us to monitor the condition of forest areas and respond promptly to negative factors: illegal logging, spontaneous damage, forest fires. The identification of potentially dangerous situations will be carried out automatically, with subsequent ranking of violations according to the scale of harm caused," said Deputy Governor of the Nizhny Novgorod Region Yegor Polyakov. Data on changes in the lands of the forest fund is identified by AI tools operating based on information obtained from low-orbit satellites. The information is then transmitted to the regional geographic information system of the Nizhny Novgorod Region, from where it goes to the "Digital Forest" system, where it becomes available to the responsible employee in their personal account. "Innovative technologies, which have no analogs in Russia, have long been safeguarding forest order in the Nizhny Novgorod Region. Today we continue to enhance technological capabilities by working with neural network algorithms. By implementing neural networks, we will significantly accelerate the process of detecting and preventing violations of forest legislation, in particular, illegal timber harvesting, unlawful actions on forest fund territories, even in remote and hard-to-reach areas. This comprehensive approach significantly strengthens the protection of our natural resources and increases the level of compliance with legality in forest use," said the Minister of Forestry and Wildlife Protection of the Nizhny Novgorod Region Roman Vorobyov. Let us remind you that the development of services using artificial intelligence is part of the tasks of the federal project "Digital Platforms in the Social Sphere" of the new national project "Data Economy and Digital Transformation of the State," which will come into effect in Russia on January 1, 2025, by order of President Vladimir Putin. "Data Economy" is the successor to the national project "Digital Economy."