OnlyForests

Main landing page of our application
Company View
Sample Satellite image from our data
Private consumer view, value estimator of the land
Architecture diagram of ResNet-50

Inspiration

As young people, we are interested in AI and we also deeply care about the environment and sustainability. Therefore, it was natural to create a project that leverages AI to help tackle problems such as climate change.

What it does

We created a business idea that connects local land owners from areas affected by deforestation and companies that want to reduce their carbon footprint. We do this thanks to our Computer Vision model, which is capable of analysing satellite images to determine the deforested land and area of forests on the Earth's surface.

How we built it

We first started building a business case for our project, we researched for a long time the impact and drivers of deforestation. For the design of our application, we used Figma to produce the main UI views: The company and customer views of the app.

Challenges we ran into

The main challenge we ran into was finding an idea that made sense, something that was scalable, profitable and have a positive impact on the environment. Deforestation is a very broad problem, that happens worldwide so we also had to think about a general solution that could be applied everywhere. With the code we ran into multiple challenges. First off picking a model that would suit our needs was already an important decision to make, and we looked at many available models before choosing to use ResNet-50. There was also a steep learning curve of learning to use the technologies which slowed us down as well.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are particularly proud of our idea for the challenge. Turning such a difficult and anxiety inducing problem into a win-win situation for the environment and for companies and people is really an achievement we can be proud of. After jumping around between models and strategies for our main functionality, We're particularly proud of our final result. In the future we would like to make it even more robust but in the current state it is already an exceptional tool.

What we learned

Throughout this project, we deepened our understanding of both the technical aspects of machine learning and the environmental implications of deforestation. We learned a lot on the technical side of things, but also to work together as a team and to have a good team spirit along the way.

What's next for OnlyForests

In the future, OnlyForests seeks to expand into other areas of sustainability, creating a comprehensive platform for environmental action. We plan to integrate real-time monitoring capabilities, enabling instant alerts when deforestation activities are detected. Our roadmap includes collaborating with reforestation initiatives to not only halt the loss of forests but also to actively contribute to their recovery. By scaling up OnlyForests, we envision a global impact where businesses, individuals, and communities are empowered to make informed decisions and take tangible actions toward a greener planet.