We are presenting our latest change detection work at the Environmental Compliance Conference in Christchurch this week. This conference is an important gathering of regional and local council compliance officers and decision-makers.
Our team will discuss our work in partnership with Auckland Council–using satellite imagery and machine learning to automatically detect new building sites from space. This early detection helps council staff visit and assess sites early in their construction phase, allowing them to check for and mitigate issues such as sediment and stormwater runoff, changes to land stability and visual impacts on landscapes.
Xerra CEO, Steve Cotter says, “New Zealand has a high volume of residential building activity as we work to ease our housing shortage. It’s hard for councils to know when construction has started, and to visit every site. We are using satellite data captured over time, and applying machine learning algorithms to identify when and where construction is taking place across the whole of Auckland to help the Council monitor and reduce the environmental impact of construction work.”
Councils can visit changewatch.xerra.nz for more information, or reach out directly by emailing hello@xerra.nz to speak with the team.