Revolutionizing Environmental Protection through Cutting-Edge Technology in Puerto Rico and Beyond
Introduction
Puerto Rico has faced a multitude of environmental challenges that demand urgent and innovative solutions. Rapid urbanization in past decades has drastically covered Puerto Rico’s watersheds with impervious surfaces, resulting in thousands of people living in flood-prone areas.
Landslide hazards are also a growing concern, as bursts of heavy rainfall from intense storms trigger numerous landslides in the island’s mountainous areas every year, causing substantial property damage and sometimes loss of life.
On September 6, 2017, Hurricane Irma devastated the U.S. Virgin Islands and eastern areas of Puerto Rico, followed by Hurricane Maria, a high-end category 4 storm, which was the strongest storm to hit Puerto Rico since 1928.
TerraFirma, a trailblazing software company rooted in the heart of the island, is revolutionizing environmental protection through cutting-edge technology. TerraFirma is a SaaS (Software as a Service) company that develops digital solutions to study the environment using big data, physics simulations, and AI on a comprehensive 2D and 3D dashboard.
For those unfamiliar, SaaS is a software licensing model that allows access to software on a subscription basis using external servers. This model enables users to access programs via the internet without needing to install the software on their own computers.
“TerraFirma helps businesses, governments, and researchers by providing crucial information about the environment. This information helps… understand the world around [Puerto Rico] better so [they] can make informed decisions,” states their website. “[They] work hard to ensure [their] information is accurate and up-to-date so [their] clients can make the best choices and accelerate mitigation and reconstruction efforts.”
Through their innovative use of technology, TerraFirma is setting a new standard for environmental protection and sustainability, making a significant impact on Puerto Rico’s efforts to address its environmental challenges. As Puerto Rico rebuilds and fortifies itself against future crises, TerraFirma stands at the forefront of this transformative journey. The company’s state-of-the-art AI systems meticulously analyze data to predict and mitigate the impacts of environmental threats, from coastal erosion to flooding. This proactive approach not only safeguards the island’s precious ecosystems but also equips communities with the tools and knowledge to respond more effectively to natural calamities.
Puerto Rico is not just recovering but is setting a new standard for environmental stewardship. This blend of technology and tenacity promises a safer, more resilient future for the island, inspiring other regions worldwide to adopt similar strategies in their fight against environmental challenges. Dive into the story of TerraFirma, where technology meets tenacity, and discover how one company’s vision is reshaping the future of environmental protection in Puerto Rico.
Q and A with Cofounder and Chief Executive of TerraFirma, Alejandro Mieses
Interview Conducted May 29, 2024
6:00 AM Pacific Time
Latina Republic: Hello good morning everyone, my name is Kimberly Espinoza. I am an Environmental Correspondent for the organization, Latina Republic. We are a non-profit organization dedicated to amplifying the voices and histories of Latin American countries and people. I have been exploring the details on AI and how they are affecting environmental conservation in Latin American countries. Today, we have someone very special from all the way from Puerto Rico: Alejandro Mieses.
Alejandro Mieses: Good morning, thank you so much for having me. It’s a pleasure to be with you.
Latina Republic: Thank you for meeting today. The first question I have for you is how did you come up with the idea of TerraFirma? Have you always had an interest in environmental conservation, or was it more the technological side that inspired you in creating this company?
Alejandro Mieses: It was a bit of everything. I think since I was very little, I’ve been interested in natural patterns, how water flows, how that is distributed at the micro level through leaves, for example but also at the macro level through landscapes and through entire environments.
And in that sense I started coding these things as a personal concern, really since 2010. Then in 2011, I became a professor at a university here, and I was able to sort of convey these things at the architecture department that I worked in. That is a very interesting thing, because you’re teaching architects and you see how they come to understand these natural patterns.
It’s a very basic level, a very low resolution level… sort of a very simple vector. Such as, the sun comes from here, the water comes from this other place, and that’s designed for that. Yet that still remains sort of a limiting view of the environment. Thinking, “these buildings are going to be there, you know, for a 100 years or whatever it may be,” are counteracting the environment. There was a need for a higher resolution of understanding and interaction with nature and that’s when I became determined to develop software to make people conscious of the way we interact with the environment.
Our company applied to some grants from USDA, from the natural resource conservation service arm of USDA and we were awarded one of them just between the 2 weeks of hurricanes Irma and Maria which were the most catastrophic hurricane in the last 100 years, in Puerto Rico. And we took that as a sign to create what TerraFirma has become. We spent the next 3 to 4 months without running water or power. We needed to build this for the entire island and that is what we did.
Latina Republic: So you would say that was somewhat of your motivation? Obviously it was catastrophic for Puerto Rico, but that was what made you decide to help your community? The hurricanes?
Alejandro Mieses: Absolutely. We wanted to understand how every home and roadway is affected by environmental events— not just disasters like hurricanes, but also positive influences like solar exposure. After Hurricane Maria, we had no access to governmental services, telecommunications, or power, and it was the communities that came together to support each other.
This experience highlighted the importance of democratizing access to information about environmental risks. These insights are often reserved for governmental offices or large institutions, using sophisticated models. We aimed to make this information accessible to everyone, helping them prepare for future disasters.
Latina Republic: That’s very good. It’s very good to have a plan with weather that is so unpredictable. You never know what is going to happen. So coming together as a community was really important and it brought up this initiative that you started in this company which has been very productive for Puerto Rico. Going back to what you were saying about giving this information to the community, what is the benefit for the community for creating a user-friendly database and giving them access to this information? User-friendly is one of the main words used to describe AI currently, what does that entail? And how does it help the community?
Alejandro Mieses: The software enables farmers or homeowners to manage the environment effectively. They can plan ways to control excess runoff to prevent waterways from flooding.
Farmers for example can employ specific conservation practices also recognized as nature-based solutions or green infrastructure. When we look at agriculture, we see methods like contour farming where they plant rows, create embankments, and use geomorphological solutions to manage water flow and support crop production without harming surrounding areas.
Homeowners, on the other hand, want to know their communities are prepared for any environmental crisis. There’s a significant difference between casually mentioning, “oh, my neighborhood flooded,” compared to having a detailed understanding of the events that caused it. Knowing exactly where the water is coming from helps us find solutions faster and more effectively, directly impacting people’s lives. Addressing problems at the source is also more cost-effective. Whether the issue stems from a river, waterway, or sewage system, quicker solutions can be implemented to mitigate the impact.
Latina Republic: Have you thought about growing out of Puerto Rico? Are you planning to do anything outside Latin America or in the mainland United States?
Alejandro Mieses: Our next steps are in Florida and the Gulf Coast of the US because they face many of the same climate risks that we do. Both regions are influenced by the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean area, and they share similar soil types. While Texas is of course more arid, states like Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama are definitely far more similar in humidity. Additionally, Texas and Florida offer significant economic opportunities for growth, particularly in land conservation for agriculture, disaster mitigation and risk management. We believe that within the next year, we can expand into Florida.
Latina Republic: Very nice. That is exciting. Are there any similar platforms similar to your company that you know of?
Alejandro Mieses: They’re emerging right now. Nvidia has Earth2. Microsoft has Microsoft Planetary Computer. It is an interesting space because the conglomeration of satellite technologies (or earth observation technology) have actually reached a critical point. We have the capacity to gather this information on a per hour basis or per day basis so we can conduct these studies on a wider scale.
Prior to this we didn’t necessarily have access to the information. Let’s say 10 years ago the information was very hard to come by. But one of the fortunate outcomes we derived from the unfortunate events of hurricane Maria, was the federal government’s decision to generate it. The entire LiDAR scan of Puerto Rico, has become a basis to be able to determine the impact on populations and natural resources, and all the requisite data to be able to embed it into a wider set of environmental models.
Image Credit: TerraFirma.
Latina Republic: These models are not too well-known. The information seems to need to be set forth more in the media. Am I wrong? Are these databases widely known?
Alejandro Mieses: They aren’t widely known to the general public yet. It’s still an emerging field, and it might be too premature to fully convey it to the public right now. We currently lack the tools to make this information accessible to everyone at every level of understanding.
In technical professions like GIS, environmental engineering, and hydrological engineering, this information is understood and utilized. These professionals often work as consultants, providing the necessary data for architectural, environmental conservation, or engineering projects.
Our goal is to democratize access to this information and make it available to everyone. This is part of our mission, and we hope to be among the first to make it widespread. Starting in a manageable area like Puerto Rico allows us to deploy this technology in a controlled environment with natural and population diversity. We can observe public reactions, learn from this “petri dish” scenario, and refine our approach before expanding to larger populations.
Latina Republic: Has the Puerto Rican community embraced TerraFirma in a positive way? As you have seen, AI has been a controversial topic with some people unsure of this type of technology because it is so unknown and brand new. Has the community accepted your company? Or has there been any backlash?
Alejandro Mieses: No. It has been really greatly accepted, including at the governmental level. TerraFirma has private clients including farmers, homeowners, and nonprofits, so we have many followers from various sectors. AI has not been a limiting factor. But partly because we are making the technology visual, making it not only attractive but also making it understandable.
When looking at a landscape, we can’t intuitively know how the wind or water moves through it, or predict its data for the next month or the next ten years. As humans we are not naturally attuned to these environmental patterns. So making the information visually comprehensible to any level of understanding is crucial for gaining people’s interest.
Latina Republic: Can you go through the technical aspects of your company? How do these databases work?
Alejandro Mieses: We focus on square meters because it offers a more humanized scale. This smaller measurement helps us understand the impact of weather on homes, roadways, and other structures in a relatable way. Analyzing data at this level is different from working at a municipal level or using a 30-meter resolution, which is too large to relate directly to individual buildings and people. Understanding the precision of how environmental events manifest is crucial.
Additionally, we use historical data from NOAA, dating back to 1941, to feed our algorithms and understand the behavior of the entire hydrological network of Puerto Rico. This data shows us how water moves through the terrain, its transport speed, saturation levels, and soil composition (clay, sand, silt).
Working in this controlled environment allows us to potentially apply our methods to other tropical regions. The tropics cover 40% of the world’s population and surface area, sharing many similarities in soil, biodiversity, and rainfall. Our goal is to eventually expand to other countries in Asia, Africa, and the Caribbean.
Contact Information
Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/alejandro-mieses-80a61a2b
Website: www.terrafirmasw.com
Conclusion
As we can observe from this compelling interview, Alejandro Mieses and TerraFirma are emerging as key players in the fight against environmental degradation. Mr. Mieses’ profound dedication and innovative approach has positioned TerraFirma at the forefront of environmental protection efforts in Puerto Rico and beyond. In recent years, we have all faced challenging times, with the deteriorating state of the environment becoming a major source of anxiety in 2024. The increasing frequency of natural disasters, rising sea levels, and severe weather events have left many feeling overwhelmed and powerless. However, individuals like Mr. Mieses and the team at TerraFirma are making significant strides to combat these issues.
Their work is not only about technological advancements but also about a deep commitment to the well-being of the Puerto Rican community and the broader Latin American region. TerraFirma is leveraging cutting-edge technology to develop solutions that address the unique environmental challenges faced by these areas. Through their innovative use of big data, AI, and physics simulations, they are providing vital information and tools to businesses, governments, and researchers, enabling them to make informed decisions and take effective action.
Although AI is still being tested, it shows promise as a tool for finding real solutions to these enormous issues. As Mr. Mieses explained, this type of work has the potential to expand globally. AI is becoming increasingly valued as it continues to progress, and I personally can’t wait to see what advancements it will lead to in environmental protection and beyond.
Kimberly Espinoza | Environmental CorrespondentHello! I’m a Nicaraguan-American student attending San Francisco, California. In my free time, I enjoy reading, hiking, and spending time with my Labrador, Max. I’m passionate about writing on social issues like immigration, gender inequality, and environmental changes. Advocating for the working class and defending individuals from marginalized communities is important to me. My passion for environmental issues comes from my upbringing and my admiration for my mother, who has been a farm worker all her life. She taught me to appreciate the environment and the issues it encompasses.I strive for a positive environmental future, not just for myself, but also for future generations. In collaboration with Latina Republic, I aim to shed light on the societal impacts of policies and laws in Central and Latin America, particularly concerning environmental conservation. I am eager to deepen my understanding of these issues and explore avenues for improvement within these countries’ systems.
