Artificial Intelligence for Environment & Sustainability
Template:Short description Template:Multiple issues Artificial Intelligence for Environment & Sustainability (ARIES) is an international non-profit research project hosted by the Basque Centre for Climate Change (BC3) headquartered in Bilbao, Spain.<ref>Models and Tools, bc3research.org</ref> It was created to integrate scientific computational models for environmental sustainability assessment and policy-making,<ref>ARIES (ARtificial Intelligence for Ecosystem Services): a new tool for ecosystem services assessment, planning, and valuation., bioecon-network.org/</ref><ref>A guide to models and data, un.org</ref><ref name="A Methodology for Adaptable and Robust Ecosystem Services Assessment">Template:Cite journal</ref> through ecoinformatics.<ref name="Villa Ceroni Bagstad Johnson 2009">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Technology and applications
ARIES seeks to integrate scientific data and models that simulate environmental and socioeconomic systems to address linked scientific modelling problems,<ref name="PLoSBlogApr16">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> through semantics (computer science),<ref name="Modelling with knowledge: A review of emerging semantic approaches to environmental modelling">Template:Cite journal</ref> FAIR data and models,<ref name="FAIR principles 2016">Template:Cite journal</ref> and an open-source software infrastructure called Knowledge Laboratory (k.LAB) to semantically describe, code, and distribute data and models for end-users, modellers, and network administrators.<ref>An interoperability strategy for the next generation of SEEA accounting un.org</ref>
ARIES currently includes two web-based applications: the k.Explorer<ref>k.Explorer github.com</ref> and the ARIES for SEEA Explorer.<ref>ARIES for SEEA un.org</ref><ref name="NewtralJun21">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Released in Fall 2018, k.Explorer is an interface that allows non-technical users to run sophisticated models.<ref>ARtificial Intelligence for Ecosystem Services (ARIES) govt.nz</ref> The ARIES for SEEA Explorer was released in April 2021 by BC3 in collaboration with the Statistics Division of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) for rapid, standardized and customizable natural capital accounting.<ref>Artificial intelligence saving the natural world un.org</ref><ref name="NobbotJul21">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Shortly following the adoption of the System of Integrated Environmental and Economic Accounting (SEEA) Ecosystem Accounting standard by United Nations in March 2021,<ref>UN adopts landmark framework to integrate natural capital in economic reporting un.org</ref> the ARIES for SEEA Explorer was made available on the UN Global Platform in order to accelerate SEEA's implementation worldwide.<ref>UN launches the first artificial intelligence tool for rapid natural capital accounting unep.org</ref><ref>UN launches AI tool to measure ecosystems of countries gov.in</ref><ref name="InnovaSpainJun21">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
History and partners
The ARIES Project started in April 2007 at the Gund Institute for Ecological Economics of the University of Vermont, United States, sponsored by a $1M grant from the U.S. government's National Science Foundation.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> A prototype of the model building system was developed over the following year, and a functional prototype was made available online in 2012.<ref>"AI and Spain's climate change and decarbonisation agenda" Report digitalfuturesociety.com</ref> Since 2010, the project has been based at BC3, where the technology has continued developing ever since.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Since 2013, the ARIES team has held the International Spring University (ISU) on Ecosystem Services Modelling,<ref>ISU 2019 bc3research.org</ref> an annual intensive modelling school for scientists and policy analysts working in the environmental sustainability field.<ref name="ElPaísMar13">Template:Cite news</ref>
ARIES is led from a global hub at BC3.
References
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