By Barry Eitel

SAN FRANCISCO (AA) – The United Nations announced Friday that it has joined with Google to create a new digital platform that monitors deforestation, climate change and other environmental health metrics around the globe.

Collect Earth was created by the UN’s Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO). It utilizes data and satellite imagery culled from Google Earth, as well information from Bing Maps, owned by Microsoft. Users around the globe can input data related to their local environment, making the platform even more powerful.

“It’s user-friendliness and smooth learning curve make it a perfect tool for performing fast, accurate and cost-effective assessments,” FAO said in a statement. “It is highly customizable for the specific data collection needs and methodologies.”

According to the UN, Collect Earth records forest inventories for different countries and performs assessments of the changing uses of land and forests. It will also monitor city sprawl into agricultural areas, collect socio-economic data and record information on global warming. The program will be able to provide hard evidence for the deforestation and desertification of specific areas.

The user-generated information is synced with the mountain of datasets available in the Google Earth Engine, the company’s cloud computing platform specifically aimed at observing and analyzing the Earth. Using Google’s platform, the Collect Earth team can monitor the effects of climate change and deforestation by looking at satellite photos taken over time.

“Collect Earth is a game changer – thanks to Google Earth Engine, we will be able to monitor the world’s forests much more efficiently together with all other actors,” said Rene Castro Salazar, FAO Assistant Director-General of it’s forestry division.

Google and the UN noted that anyone can use the open source Collect Earth software, from concerned citizens to university researchers to non-governmental organizations.

AA