Environment and planet
Climate and environment: research challenges in the digital sciences
Date:
Changed on 12/11/2024
Current environmental issues, such as climate change, loss of biodiversity, resource depletion and various forms of pollution, pose major challenges for our society. In a context where digital technology is playing a paradoxical role in ecological crises, being both a source of problems and solutions, the Inria Centre at the University of Bordeaux is positioning itself at the heart of these issues, mobilizing its expertise to develop innovative solutions.
Raising awareness to inform political and individual choices
Visualizing impact and encouraging action
The first step towards meaningful change is raising awareness. The Bivwac project-team is focusing on developing visualization tools to illustrate, in particular, the environmental impacts of various behaviors and public policies. “The tools we are developing are designed to make the consequences of human actions more tangible and understandable, thereby encouraging individuals and decision-makers to adopt more sustainable behaviors,” explains Martin Hachet, head of Bivwac.
Estimating the sustainable threshold of digital use
The Manao project-team is working on estimating and understanding the environmental impact of digital development, and seeking to determine a sustainable level. “Rather than using conventional averaging approaches, we are adopting consequential and systemic approaches to better understand the links between digital uses and their ecological impacts,” explains Manao's Gaël Guennebaud. This includes work on sizing network infrastructures according to usage, optimizing HPC infrastructures and studying digitization in specific fields such as agriculture.
Understanding the role of microorganisms in agroecology
Soil and plant microorganisms play a crucial role in the development and life of plants. “In our team, we focus on modeling interactions within microbial communities and with their hosts”, explains Clémence Frioux from the Pleiade project team. These models contribute, for example, to a better understanding of the role of microorganisms in the susceptibility or resistance of plants to bioaggressors.
© Inria / Photo B. Fourrier
Mitigate to reduce impacts
Reducing the energy consumption of algorithms
Reducing the energy consumption of algorithms is a major challenge, particularly in the field of High-Performance Computing (HPC). The Tadaam, Topal and Storm project teams are working together to optimize algorithms and reduce their energy footprint. “One of the avenues we are pursuing, for example, is to ask whether optimized placement of tasks and data on the different processors could reduce data movements, and therefore power consumption”, explains Brice Goglin from the Tadaam project-team. These combined efforts are aimed in particular at minimizing the rebound effect, where efficiency gains are cancelled out by an increase in the size or number of problems solved.
Reducing the footprint of delivery activities
Delivery activities, particularly in urban environments, represent a significant source of greenhouse gas emissions. “We are working on solutions to reduce the carbon footprint of deliveries by using resources usually dedicated to passengers, such as TERs and streetcars,” explains François Clautiaux, head of the Edge project team. By proposing models and algorithms for optimizing logistics networks using non-polluting means of transport, Edge is helping to make urban logistics more sustainable.
© Inria / Photo B. Fourrier
Adapting to current and future effects
Making current and future power grids more resilient
Adapting to the current and future effects of climate change means making critical infrastructures more resilient. The Edge team is working on optimizing power grid investment strategies to ensure their robustness in the face of climate challenges. This includes exploring the feasibility of a grid based mainly on renewable energies, for example. The team's scientists are also developing robust disaster response policies, which can be mobilized in the effective management of environmental crises.
Anticipate to prevent damage
Anticipating the risk of flooding and inundation
Flooding and coastal submersion represent growing threats due to climate change and rising sea levels. The Cardamom project-team is working with the French Geological Survey (BRGM) to improve fluid flow simulation models in order to better predict these risks. These advanced models can be used to anticipate urban flooding and coastal submersion, providing invaluable tools for environmental risk planning and management.
© Inria / Photo M. Magnin