{"id":26313,"date":"2024-01-08T14:00:20","date_gmt":"2024-01-08T13:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.joanneum.at\/?p=26313"},"modified":"2024-01-11T10:07:35","modified_gmt":"2024-01-11T09:07:35","slug":"interview-more-sustainability-by-digital-transformation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.joanneum.at\/en\/interview-mehr-nachhaltigkeit-durch-digitale-transformation\/","title":{"rendered":"Interview: more sustainability through digital transformation?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

What are the large technological trends driving the transformation? <\/strong><\/p>\n

Mayer:<\/em> Artificial intelligence is certainly the main trend. This methodology has been around for a long\ntime, but it is the increase in computing power and the availability of data that has\nallowed AI to gain such enormous momentum. There is also still a lot of opportunity\nin the field of sensors and the field of mobility is also unbelievably dynamic: There\nis a lot of investment, modernisation, and expansion in the public domain. There\nare huge endeavours in the field of individual transport to bring resource optimisation and increased efficiency into vehicles. That is transformation! Fifteen years ago,\nelectro-mobility was just hovering on the side lines. Now we see increased market\npenetration. Communication technologies are also transformation drivers. Improved\ncommunication in those areas in the world that are hardly connected has positive\neffects on the use of resources such as the reduction in travel distances. Mega-constellations of satellites offer long-term advantages for this. These consist of a large\nnumber of satellites that are arranged as a network in space and enable services such\nas communication, internet access, earth observation, and more. This is all important\nfor frictionless and cost-saving communication in remote or sparsely populated areas\nsince the laying of fibre-optic cables would simply be too cost-intensive.<\/p>\n

What role does digitalisation play in the process of making the world greener?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mayer: <\/em>It is obvious that the green transformation can only exist with the support of technologies. Innovation and technology need to move more in the direction of sustainability. There is a lot going on, but there is still room for improvement regarding\nthe optimisation of resources and efficiency. One huge challenge is embedded in the\nanswer to the question how energy can be made available and controlled in a more\nresource-efficient way \u2013 so-called power electronics are needed. A second lies in the\nmonitoring of our resources and their resilience, for example the monitoring of our\nforests as a research focus in our research group Remote Sensing and Geoinformation. We have decades of expertise in the field of environmental monitoring which\nwe continue to expand upon. A third challenge that I see is to create the highest possible and efficient return of resources in the sense of a functioning circular economy,\nfor example smart recycling or automated material recognition. We lead the field in\ncharacterisation of material flows with multi-spectral sensors, in the research and\nimplementation of new, bio-based, recyclable, or compostable materials, or in the\nevaluation of lifecycle-based sustainability (LCA).<\/p>\n

What obstacles need to be overcome along this\npath? <\/strong><\/p>\n

Mayer:<\/em> The time factor is definitely an obstacle. The\ndevelopment of technology is time-intensive and\nrequires tenacity, from the concept through implementation and product development. Very often,\nlarge developments do not progress as quickly as\nnecessary due to the small structuring of programs\nin Austria and Europe. What is actually an advantage in the aspect of respecting individual approaches is simultaneously a stumbling block if large\nproblems are to be solved.<\/p>\n

Numerous approaches to solve the issues of efficiency and resource-protection are based on\ndigital representations of reality - digital twins.\nWhat advantages do they bring with respect\nto sustainability? <\/strong><\/p>\n

Mayer: <\/em>Digital twins increase transparency. They are used in areas such as mobility for\nexample in vehicles, in production, in medicine, and\nin the environment. The latter are generated using\nremote sensing technologies both geometrically and\nradiometrically. The results are terrain models that\ncan be used in time sequences to analyse changes in\nthe environment. Forests and temperature development in cities can be monitored and insights gained\nover a certain time period. Digital twins are also\nimportant for the carbon-capture process, which is\nthe process where an attempt is made to separate\nout CO2 and make good use of it before it reaches\nthe atmosphere. Using the example of forestation,\nat least two research questions can be derived from\nthis: what effects do large-scale deforestation activities have on the climate and vice versa how does\nthe changed climate affect the forest system?<\/p>\n

How can artificial intelligence contribute to sustainability? <\/strong><\/p>\n

Mayer: <\/em>For example, we are currently conducting research into mobility behaviour, automatic\nwaste material recognition and recycling, and the\nanalysis of the Earth\u2019s surface using remote sensing. The individual analyses are largely based on\nAI, or to be more precise, machine learning. Generally speaking, artificial intelligence is a useful approach to solving problems where complex processes are at work.<\/p>\n

Both digitalisation and the transition to new\ntechnologies such as e-mobility will increase\nthe demand for energy. Where will the energy\nfor all this come from? <\/strong><\/p>\n

Mayer:<\/em> That is a core question\nthat is causing many a headache. There is no answer yet. It is perhaps possible with conventional\nenergy generation, but counter-productive from an\nenvironmental perspective. It is currently not possible to cover the energy demand with renewable\nenergies. This means that we have to significantly\nreduce our energy consumption or find new ways\nto produce energy. But that in turn needs an appropriate ramp-up from the concept, via planning\npermission, construction processes, all the way to\nexecution: this could take decades.<\/p>\n

In your opinion, what is necessary to achieve\nthe climate goals? <\/strong><\/p>\n

Mayer: <\/em>Technology openness and, of\ncourse, tenacity. As a community, we are often far\ntoo lackadaisical in our approach. This why politicians are under pressure and would like to act quickly and as a result of the urgency prescribe technologies. In my view, this is not the optimum approach\nas not all technologies and their impacts on the ecobalance have been completely thought through, for\nexample regarding their energy requirements.<\/p>\n

On a scale from 1 to 10, what is the level of your\npersonal green transformation? <\/strong><\/p>\n

Mayer:<\/em> I see myself at\n5. My goal is to save more energy and to use fewer\nresources.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Was sind die gro\u00dfen Technologietrends, die Transformation antreiben? Mayer: K\u00fcnstliche Intelligenz ist sicher der gr\u00f6\u00dfte Trend. Die Methodik gibt es ja schon l\u00e4nger, aber aufgrund der Leistungssteigerung der Recheneinheiten und der Verf\u00fcgbarkeit von Daten hat KI an Dynamik enorm zugelegt. In der Sensorik liegt auch noch gro\u00dfes Potenzial und auch der Bereich Mobilit\u00e4t ist unglaublich […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39,"featured_media":26319,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,72],"tags":[2209,2211,2113,2212,2170,2210],"class_list":["post-26313","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-allgemein","category-news","tag-digitalisierung","tag-energie","tag-gruene-und-digitale-transformation","tag-klima","tag-nachhaltigkeit","tag-technologietrends","institutes-allgemein","business_areas-gesundheit-und-pflege","business_areas-energie-beleuchtung-und-mobilitaet","business_areas-politik-und-gesellschaft","business_areas-produktion-und-fertigung","business_areas-sicherheit-und-verteidigung","business_areas-umwelt-und-nachhaltigkeit","business_areas-weltraum"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.joanneum.at\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26313","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.joanneum.at\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.joanneum.at\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.joanneum.at\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/39"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.joanneum.at\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26313"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.joanneum.at\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26313\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26654,"href":"https:\/\/www.joanneum.at\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26313\/revisions\/26654"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.joanneum.at\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.joanneum.at\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.joanneum.at\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.joanneum.at\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}