Event
Five INRIA projects are centred exclusively on the environment, without taking
into account those projects that touch on environmental issues in the course of
their research. From oceanography to the management of renewable resources,
computers are precious tools for modelling and forecasting.
People are interested in the environment and researchers are not unaware of that trend. From the 10th to the 12th September, 1997, INRIA will organize the first European conference on Technology and Computer Science for the Environment. Project Rodin, which focuses on computer systems and databases for environmental problems, took the initiative for this conference. What are the needs in terms of computer systems concerning environment? Is research capable of responding to some of these needs? Industrialists, scientists and those in charge will share their expectations, their respective experience and expertise in the field.
One of the major needs that researchers are trying to respond to is the design of data interpretation systems. Surprisingly, it turns out that research used up to now only for military purposes can also be applied to environmental projects. Project Pastis in Sophia Antipolis, for example, is interested in the processing of Earth observation satellite images. Its work consists in extracting and exploiting cartography data from such images -communication networks, geological studies and so on. At Rocquencourt, Project Air studies the problem of dynamic image analysis in land-sea-atmosphere observations. The main applications are in the fields of oceanography, the study of evolutionary phenomena such as the movement of icebergs, forest fires, etc., or in the management of water resources.
Modelling of data provides a key for observing the Earth and in deciphering the way nature works, but it poses serious problems as well, beginning with the number of parameters. The models used in weather forecasting, for example, contain more than 10 million variables. In Rhône-Alpes, Project Idopt consecrates part of its research to meteorological and oceanographic forecasting. It uses a technique called data assimilation. The pre-project Comore focuses its research on the modelling and control of renewable resources by studying phytoplankton growth, the rate of forestation and so on. In anticipating today, all of these research tracks make it possible to manage and prepare for the environment in which we will live tomorrow.
Contact: Isabelle Herlin,
head of the Air project
Tel.: +33 1 39 63 53 71 - Isabelle.Herlin@inria.fr
