By: James Gachanja, Nashon Adero, and Bonface Odhiambo
Across Africa, artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) plays a vital role in livelihoods but often comes at the cost of unchecked land degradation, biodiversity loss, and weakened ecosystems. In places like the gemstone and industrial mineral haven of Taita Taveta County, Kenya, unregulated mining has contributed to shrinking forest cover, eroded soils, and disappearing water sources. Yet, mining is a crucial economic activity which needs to be enhanced to be a sustainable practice alongside agriculture, urban development, and conservation interests. Geospatial data is at the heart of meeting this challenge, a balancing act that calls for evidence-based and geodata-driven policy advice with dynamic models of changing scenario maps.
Our project, TerraWatch ASM (Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining Monitor), was submitted to the Kaggle BigQuery AI – Building the Future competition. It represents a new way of using Earth Observation data + BigQuery AI to protect the planet.
🚀 What We Built
TerraWatch ASM integrates multi-sensor satellite imagery (Sentinel-2, Landsat, VIIRS) with BigQuery AI to:
- Detect early signs of mining and land degradation within days rather than weeks or months.
- Forecast vegetation and soil health trends to anticipate future risks.
- Auto-generate narrative briefs with generative AI so non-technical users (like rangers and policy officers) get decision-ready insights in minutes.
- Corroborate evidence through semantic document retrieval, linking detected anomalies with relevant reports, community records, or government documents.
By compressing the time from detection to action, TerraWatch ASM empowers authorities to halt land loss before it becomes irreversible.
🌱 Why It Matters
Our solution has significant impacts on people and our planet. This work directly supports SDG 15.3.1 (Land Degradation Neutrality) and contributes to SDG Goal 15:
Protect, restore, and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt biodiversity loss.
In practice, our system helps:
- Safeguard biodiversity corridors in Tsavo and Taita Hills.
- Preserve water resources for communities.
- Improve decision-making efficiency for county governments and conservation agencies.
Our solution is scalable globally.
👥 Our Team
We are three passionate innovators combining geospatial science, AI, and sustainable development:
- James Gachanja – Spatial Analytics, urban planning and design expert.
- Nashon Adero – Geospatial engineer & systems modelling expert.
- Bonface Odhiambo – Geoinformatics graduate with expertise in AI and data analytics.
Together, we are shaping AI-driven environmental intelligence for Africa.
📢 Join the Conversation
We’d love to hear your feedback on TerraWatch ASM and explore how this solution could be scaled to other regions in Africa and beyond. Please share your thoughts through this short form:
You can also learn more about the competition on Kaggle.
✨ With AI, geospatial data, and collaboration, we can turn the tide against land degradation and build a sustainable future.