Harnessing AI for Urban Resilience: AI x City Climate Action Hackathon Unveils Innovative Solutions for Brazilian Cities

Emerging technologies are transforming industries at a rapid pace, with Artificial Intelligence (AI) at the forefront of this revolution. From reshaping how we use transportation to optimizing complex systems like energy and healthcare, AI has demonstrated its potential to address the world’s most pressing issues. But have you ever considered how AI could revolutionize climate action?

At the 2024 Innovate4Cities Conference (I4C24) in Montréal, Canada, this question took center stage at the AI x City Climate Action sessions on 12 September. In the opening session, Beth Blauer, Associate Vice Provost for Public Innovation at Johns Hopkins University Center, took the participants on an exploratory journey to discover the transformative potential of artificial intelligence. With interactive demonstrations and practical exercises, participants delved into harnessing AI tools for climate data analysis, gaining valuable insights and developing actionable strategies accessible to everyone, regardless of their technical background. 

By focusing on Brazilian cities, participants worked on developing cutting-edge AI tools, capable of supporting cities in accessing data, planning effectively, and responding to the increasing frequency of extreme climate events.

Despite recognizing the need for immediate action, many cities around the world still deal with significant barriers, such as limited capacity and costly early planning stages. The AI x City Climate Action Hackathon was created to bridge this gap, leveraging AI to equip cities with smarter tools to accelerate their climate adaptation journey.

In the run up for COP30 in 2025, Brazilian cities are an ideal testing ground for AI-powered solutions to meet their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) leveraging Brazil’s active role in the Coalition for High Ambition Multilevel Partnerships (CHAMP) for Climate Action. The initiative seeks to enhance collaboration between national and subnational governments in their climate action planning. The closing session showcased how AI is revolutionizing climate practices, featuring AI tools developed by Hackathon finalists and ClimateIQ, a next generation AI tool harnessing AI to empower local adaptation to climate change. Timon McPhearson, the team lead, director of the Urban Systems Lab and lead author of IPCC AR6, presented the tool that will be rolled out by 2026 and is being developed with funding from Google.org.

The success of the AI x City Climate Action Hackathon was made possible thanks to the support of key city network partners, nonprofit organizations, academia, and the private sector. C40 Cities led the design of the challenge building up on their Rapid Climate Change Risk Assessment methodology (CCRA) and complemented by the competition’s knowledge partner, ICLEI. Open Earth Foundation provided the technical support to deliver the Hackathon and the World Geospatial Industry Council (WGIC) members, Picterra and Esri, made their platforms available to the participants to develop and train models for the competition. AdaptaBrasil, a platform developed by the Brazilian Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation supported the participants with tailored access to their data. Last but not least, Mila – Quebec Artificial Intelligence Institute will provide support to the winning team.

And the winner is:

While the competition was fierce, the winning team, DUCTExplorer, stood out for their groundbreaking approach to climate risk assessment. Their innovative use of AI not only met the critical data access challenges but also provided actionable insights that could accelerate climate adaptation efforts in urban areas.

As part of their reward, the winning team will be mentored by Donna Vakalis, a two-time Canadian Olympian and AI expert at Mila. Donna’s mentorship offers the team the chance to refine their solution, preparing it for real-world implementation. Her unique blend of expertise in AI and innovation will walk the team through the next phase of development, thus helping to bring their visionary solution to life.