Environmentalists will be able to find illegal landfills thanks to the Sber AI model

2023: Identifying illegal landfills

Environmentalists began identifying illegal landfills using artificial intelligence technologies, including the Geometry geoanalytical platform developed by Sber AI. The pilot project is being implemented by Sberbank Business Software in partnership with PPK Russian Environmental Operator. Sberbank announced this on October 10, 2023.

The main task of the neural network is to recognize satellite images and point to areas where a spontaneous landfill may be located. This will quickly prevent the emergence and growth of illegal landfills and minimize the damage caused to the ecology of Russia.

To implement the Russian Environmental Operator project, it provided the Sberbank with information about all known legal and illegal landfills. Based on this data, it was possible to make markup and train the AI model. The next stage - satellite images of the territory of Russia will be automatically analyzed by the neural network for the presence of spontaneous landfills. After that, artificial intelligence data will be checked by volunteers who examine the sites and confirm or deny the presence of illegal landfills on them.

{{quote 'author = said Alexander Vedyakhin, First Deputy Chairman of the Management Board of Sberbank. | As of October 2023, over 15 thousand illegal landfills were recorded in Russia. Moreover, these are only those about which there is information. Every year new spontaneous polygons are identified, but no one knows their exact number. The project, which we are implementing together with the Russian Environmental Operator, is aimed precisely at gaining a complete understanding of illegal landfills in Russia. Artificial intelligence technologies will help identify all spontaneous accumulations of garbage in the country. As soon as the AI model begins to consistently accurately recognize them, the pilot project will be able to transform into regular monitoring, which will allow you to quickly monitor the situation and stop environmental violations,}}

{{quote 'author = noted Denis Butsaev, General Director of PPK "Russian Ecological Operator." | Information technology is at the forefront of the development of various industries, and our sphere is no exception. We are already using development and continue to expand the possibilities of using technologies. As part of cooperation with Sber Business Software, we will work on the use of artificial intelligence technologies in the field of waste management when working with satellite images, namely, to identify unauthorized landfills. Thanks to our joint project, an assessment of the environmental situation in the Russian regions will be given, and the result will be the development of proposals for the application of the results obtained at the federal level,}}