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The Open Building Insights is an interactive online platform running on IBM Cloud. OBI visually consolidates data in a map, providing information related to buildings in countries addressing urban planning challenges, such as building location, height, footprint area, and usage type. This visual consolidation makes AI models' output easy to understand for non-technical users, and empowers stakeholders to make informed decisions about sustainable urban development.
Reliable data are indispensable for addressing urban planning gaps. Many governments and their advisors rely on open source, geospatial data to develop national roadmaps for infrastructure. Well-designed plans enable policymakers and the private sector to swiftly identify communities or buildings in need of intervention based on parameters such as structure type, proximity to existing infrastructure, homeowners' ability to pay for services, and local resource suitability.
A crucial data set for effective energy planning is the known building 'footprints' - the locations and sizes of buildings or structures. However, sourcing this data accurately remains challenging in many developing regions. Fortunately, recent advances in AI are creating new opportunities.
Since October 2022, Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL) has collaborated with IBM to address this data gap. Together, we are developing Open Building Insights, a cloud-based solution that leverages satellite imagery and AI models to provide building footprint data attributes to make such data more actionable for governments in countries still grappling with significant related urban planning challenges. Open Building Insights is available to all through an open-access, web-based interface.
The key insights provided by the tool - all within an intuitive and accessible framework, can support the evaluation of electricity consumption and environmental impact of a specific area, the possibilities for optimizing energy efficiency, or planning for future infrastructure developments. By adopting this solution, stakeholders can contribute to smarter, more sustainable urban planning and, ultimately, a brighter future for communities and the environment. Engaging with the SEforALL Open Building Insights empowers stakeholders to make informed decisions for sustainable urban development.
The interactive map consolidates models created by the German Aerospace Center (DLR),
which estimates buildings' heights, by Open Energy Maps, which... provides information about electricity
status and consumption, and by IBM, which determines if a building is residential or non-residential.
This efficiency in data consolidation streamlines decision-making processes and facilitates a holistic view
of the urban landscape.
For the full list of data sources, see the Glossary page.
The user can also gain access to detailed information at the building level. Information include: the rooftop area (sq.m), building height (m) and a... binary classification type (residential Vs non-residential) along with a prediction confidence level. This granularity enhances the precision of decision-making processes.
Open Building Insights
leverages open access geospatial data (OpenStreetMap, Sentinel 2, NICFI, WSF3D)
and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to predict ... building attributes that
are crucial for affecting infrastructure planning. These include building
type classification (residential vs. health facilities, education
institutions, public offices, productive structures - where data are available), electricity access status,
(potential) electricity consumption and energy efficiency of
buildings.
This level of detailed information offers insights that are not available elsewhere. By enhancing
our understanding of urban and rural composition, it enables more informed
decision-making in planning efforts.
Open Building Insights
presents a user-friendly web interface tailored for visualizing structures with
no registration required. This design prioritizes accessibility, empowering stakeholders to
... explore insights and
analytics for any area of
interest.
Moreover, users can download structures with their
associated attributes in multiple formats for further analysis. This
functionality fosters greater engagement and collaboration within the user
community.
Open Building Insights
produces detailed GeoJSON files comprising comprehensive building-level
information for the designated area...
of interest. Users have the flexibility to
download these files and conduct ad hoc analyses as required.
Additionally, the
option to utilize an API and integrate data into other
applications enhances interoperability, aligning with the ethos of fostering
sharing and collaboration within the sector. This approach promotes
versatility, facilitating informed decision-making and positive outcomes.
Open Building Insights runs on IBM Cloud and the IBM AI model was built using the IBM watsonx AI and data platform,... enabling reliability, scalability, and security. Stakeholders can leverage the robustness of the tool's infrastructure for handling and analyzing vast data sets that can be also taken as input to other tools.
The Open Building Insights team is collaborating with the World Resource Institute (WRI) to explore the use of building attributes in the development of the County Energy Plan (CEP) in Makueni County.
The Open Building Insights team is collaborating with the Strathmore Energy Research Center (SERC) to explore the use of Open Building Insights 's building attributes in estimating Energy Efficiency measures for different types of buildings in Makueni County.
The Open Building Insights team is collaborating with Open Energy Maps to expand the list of building attributes with the adoption of new Machine Learning models. More specifically, Open Energy Maps's LltLDF model is being used to estimate electricity status and potential electricity consumption at a building level, for millions of buildings in Kenya. In parallel, UMASS is leveraging the high volume of labelled building data in the country to validate the results and improve the accuracy of the classification model.
The Open Building Insights team is collaborating with Kenya's Ministry of Lands, Public Works, Housing, and Urban Development to use the OBI tool in planning and monitoring energy transition strategies for public buildings. This collaboration begins with a pilot focused on healthcare facilities in Makueni County, aimed at improving the targeting of energy interventions. Additionally, it involves updating and hosting new building data, gathered through primary data collection, within the OBI database.
We would love to hear more! Please contact us at [email protected]
