Purpose of the AI
It is difficult to predict the impact of a project from an environmental, social, and economic perspective. Often projects have more of an environmental impact than expected or produce fewer jobs than the planners quoted. Or the opposite occurs and the project would have benefitted the community but it was put on hold for too long. By then, it is too late.
For example, the UK is planning its first coal mine and the reason quoted is “job creation” but there has been no indication of how many jobs will be created versus the environmental impact https://www.npr.org/2021/11/04/1051444707/cop26-climate-summit-uk-coal-mine?t=1636403758262
My idea is to collate and clean historical and current data from past projects globally such as landfill sites, coal-fired plants, coal mines on the number of jobs created and salaries, investment in new services, extra road traffic, noise levels, water pollution, CO2 emission, etc. and use artificial intelligence and machine learning to predict the impact of a proposed project using a scoring system on environmental, social and economic impact,
There would be an overall score for the impact of a project 5 years from completion, 10 years, etc. with a weighting given to environmental, social, and economic which can be adjusted depending on the priority for local residents, along with individual scores for all three factors.
Who will benefit
Local residents near a planned project and local councils for the area that the project is planned for will be able to collectively determine if a project is worth investing in and will benefit the local community
Companies planning projects could use this as a means to justify or “ditch” a project.
Activists could use this to justify opposition to projects and lobby to stop the projects from going ahead or for them to go-ahead
Examples of projects that could be used for this idea:
A recycling plant in the UK - https://www.hampshirechronicle.co.uk/news/19695901.three-maids-hill-recycling-plant-decision-appealed/
A planned tidal lagoon project in the UK