The Center for Physics of the Atmosphere of the Institute of Meteorology of Cuba is developing a project to forecast periods of drought with artificial intelligence.
Now it will be possible to estimate the behavior of rainfall and drought events in periods of 15 days, one month, three, six and even one year, details a report from the newspaper Granma.
The researchers will insert neural network models in international environments for forecast evaluation, something similar to the service offered by the European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts.
Thus, artificial intelligence will achieve greater precision in forecasts, which will be open to all sectors and users in the country and in the Caribbean.
According to the experts, calculating the course of rainfall and drought in the aforementioned periods is a challenge for the scientific community, judging by the unstable behavior of the atmosphere, the uncertainty associated with this condition and the characteristics of the rains.
The project adds other benefits such as agricultural planning, more efficient water management and better use of water resources, the newspaper notes.
Data from the National Institute of Hydraulic Resources indicate that close to half a million Cubans suffer the effects of the meteorological drought, mostly concentrated in the provinces of Guantánamo, with 90,000 citizens, and Camagüey with 60,000.
Vladimir Guevara Velazco, scientific director of the Institute of Meteorology, said last March that Cuba was practically in the most extreme period of the phenomenon and that it would last for the next few months of the dry season.
The development of artificial intelligence is in the government agenda. In exchange with members of the Cuban Academy of Sciences, President Miguel Díaz-Canel asked to elaborate the Artificial Intelligence Strategy.
“We cannot only talk about an interconnection with the productive sector of goods and services: Artificial Intelligence is needed for public administration processes, because there are many procedures, many things, that with AI could be developed in a better way; and artificial intelligence must be brought to local development and territories“Diaz-Canel said last February.
