ibm-interview-crn3025-feb2015-8631ed38115507bc.pdf

This case study describes how the University of Alberta's Centre for Earth Observation Sciences (CEOS) uses IBM InfoSphere Streams software and a network of sensors to monitor climate change impacts on boreal and tropical dry forests in Canada and Latin America in real time.

• The University of Alberta has implemented an 'Internet of the Environment' using 500 sensors across Canada, Central America, and South America to monitor variables including temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure, carbon levels, and ambient noise. This system processes over 10,000 data points per second, totaling hundreds of billions of data points annually, providing a deeper understanding of environmental changes than satellite imagery alone.
• The adoption of IBM InfoSphere Streams has reduced the time required to generate meaningful insights into ecosystem changes from several months to just minutes. This allows a small research team to monitor vast geographical areas in real time, enabling them to detect immediate events such as storm damage to foliage or insect swarms eating leaves.
• The research provides predictive capabilities for natural disasters, such as droughts, allowing the University to provide governments with warnings up to 100 days in advance. This intelligence helps policymakers move away from 'one size fits all' approaches to environmental management and monitor the effectiveness of policies in real time.
• Preliminary research in Costa Rica indicates that intense drought in tropical dry forest regions could result in carbon sequestration losses estimated at USD 400 million, alongside multi-million dollar losses in the agricultural sector.

APA

Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research (n.d.). ibm-interview-crn3025-feb2015-8631ed38115507bc.pdf. https://iai.int/admin/site/sites/default/files/uploads/IBM-interview-CRN3025-feb2015.pdf

Chicago

Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research. ibm-interview-crn3025-feb2015-8631ed38115507bc.pdf. n.d. https://iai.int/admin/site/sites/default/files/uploads/IBM-interview-CRN3025-feb2015.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research |title=ibm-interview-crn3025-feb2015-8631ed38115507bc.pdf |url=https://iai.int/admin/site/sites/default/files/uploads/IBM-interview-CRN3025-feb2015.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{interamericaninstituteforglobalchangeresearchndibminterviewcrn3025feb20158631ed38115507bcpdf, author = {{Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research}}, title = {{ibm-interview-crn3025-feb2015-8631ed38115507bc.pdf}}, institution = {Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research}, url = {https://iai.int/admin/site/sites/default/files/uploads/IBM-interview-CRN3025-feb2015.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }