Google Maps aims to help businesses navigate the climate crisis

Environmental changes like wildfires, heat waves, and other extreme weather events will no doubt have an increasing impact on the way people and companies move through the world as the climate crisis progresses.

In recognition of that fact, Google Maps is debuting a set of application program interfaces (APIs) to give developers more access to data on air quality, pollen, and solar viability. The rollout adds to a growing flock of tools and services from companies of all kinds to help businesses and developers better plan for climate risks.

Sun power potential: Google’s new solar API for maps builds on the Project Sunroof tool that the company rolled out in 2015 to help consumers estimate power savings. The API will tap AI and data tools to make the data more precise than the satellite and lidar that powered Project Sunroof, according to a blog post from Jennifer Anderson, general manager of the Google Maps platform.

That means more insight into the amount of sunlight a particular building receives, the most energy-efficient solar panel array, and potential shading effects, Anderson wrote.

Air quality alerts: Anybody who’s spent any time in the Northeastern United States this summer—or the western US during numerous recent years—knows the disruption that wildfire smoke can cause to daily life.

Google’s new Air Quality API is designed to help people plan around that new reality. It draws data from a variety of sources, including government monitors, sensors, weather information, satellites, and traffic, according to Anderson.

Another Google blog post said it will help users design tools that address “hyperlocal questions” like the best park to visit, the best commute option, and whether to bring an asthma inhaler.

Pollen problems: The third new environment API aims to give more info on how various allergens are circulating as people endure what are becoming “longer, more severe allergy seasons” due to the climate crisis. The API uses a predictive model that takes into account three plant types and 15 different plant species, as well as climate data and “annual pollen production per plant,” Anderson wrote.

The release of the APIs positions Google in the midst of a growing cottage industry of tools designed to help businesses and developers assess mounting climate risks geographically. PwC, for instance, uses an actuarial approach to plotting risk, while IBM and NASA recently rolled out a foundational model to better track climate devastation.