Copy of "Digitizing Devastation: The Quest to Map Ukraine's War-Torn Landscape for Reconstruction"

Regarding the destroyed buildings and infrastructure, as well as pyrotechnic contamination, we have digitized about 250 settlements and thousands of square kilometers; we are waiting for a response from the state to scale up and digitize the whole of Ukraine

Vitaliy Lopushanskyi, founder and CEO of UADamage – an AI GIS platform for automatic remote sensing using satellites and drones – told LDaily about the unique experience of synthesizing artificial intelligence, drones, sensor technology, and cartography in the path of the country’s recovery and compensation to its residents.

LDaily: Please tell us a little about yourself and your experience.

V. Lopushanskyi: About 8 years ago, when we were assembling a team at Global Logic for the autopilot project for Volvo, I encountered artificial intelligence for the first time. This expertise was new in Ukraine, and it was difficult to find personnel. Therefore, we involved lecturers from the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, Taras Shevchenko University, Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, National Aviation University, and others. Eventually, we found several strong experts who joined the team. And that was the beginning of artificial intelligence expertise at Global Logic. We successfully developed this expertise, initiated several more projects, and by then I was quite well-versed in this field and could actively develop it.

About 2 years ago, I launched a startup where we wanted to create an AI marketplace – an app store for neural networks. But a few months later, the full-scale invasion began, and we redirected all resources and expertise to help Ukraine and our people. There were many ideas, but at that time Mariupol was experiencing very large-scale destruction – almost everything in the city center was destroyed. We decided to somehow show this to the whole world. Not just individual pictures as shown by Maxar, etc. – we wanted to form a comprehensive image of the whole city.

At that time, it was difficult to find satellite data. Nevertheless, we managed to do it through volunteer organizations that used this data to find routes and safely evacuate people. We repurposed these images to create the first neural network that automatically digitizes damage and mapped it onto an interactive map. This was the first version of the UADamage product, which we successfully distributed on all social networks and picked up by many mass media. And we really showed the horrific destruction, the horror that was happening in Mariupol. We schematically showed: look, almost the entire city is destroyed. And we digitized it, we have evidence, everything is reflected on the map.

Later, we realized that we could do this for other cities and settlements that, unfortunately, were also destroyed. So, we repurposed our efforts, and now our map features many, hundreds of destroyed settlements. We can’t always view and publicly share everything at the moment – only with the confirmation of the National Security Council and other bodies. Soon, we will release data for large cities such as Chernihiv, Kharkiv, Mykolaiv, as well as territories in the Kyiv and Mykolaiv regions. We have many settlements that we visualize well, confirm that we can share, and then share. So, stay tuned, releases are coming very soon.

Since satellite images are not always high quality due to clouds and other obstacles, we digitize many settlements by flying drones. This provides us with high-quality images, which we also map, annotate, automatically digitize, and present in higher quality. For this, we need to be on-site for drone flights. A year ago, during one such mission in Posad-Pokrovske, we witnessed two cars explode nearby – one belonged to the State Emergency Service, and the other was civilian. I realized that there are much more important issues than digitizing damaged buildings – demining. The territory is mined, and without demining, people will not return, rebuild homes, or engage in agriculture.

Therefore, last year, we began integrating artificial intelligence into the demining process. Now we have ready products that are actively used. We perform demining in three steps. First, from satellites – we look at craters and pyrotechnic contamination. Knowing the historical events and where battles took place, we search for more or less relevant satellite data, digitize it, map it to the cadastral register, and create a map of contaminated areas. If there are 10 craters in an area, there are likely 1-2 unexploded shells in each, as Russian weapons often do not explode immediately because they are old and stored poorly. After digitizing from satellites, we conduct a visual inspection with drones. Everything we find on the surface that is visible in the spectrum is also mapped. Then we fly over with different sensors, such as magnetometers and infrared cameras, to find unexploded mines or munitions hidden in grass or buried, and also map them interactively.

LDaily: How many unexploded ordnances have you found?

V. Lopushanskyi: Regarding the first step, pyrotechnic contamination and craters, we have digitized a large part of the Kherson region and part of the Mykolaiv region. We did this on our own initiative, at our own expense, as volunteers. But there is still a lot to be done because we don’t have all the satellite data. The data exists but is limited in access. What we had, we processed and mapped interactively. We provided this tool to organizations such as the Ministry of Economy, the Humanitarian Demining Center, and the Mine Action Center, and are waiting for their feedback. We say: look, we have the technology, a working prototype, and we can scale it for the whole of Ukraine. We just need satellite data, computational resources, and salaries for a few people to digitize it.

LDaily: Funding is also needed?

V. Lopushanskyi: Yes, some funding is needed. So, we are waiting for feedback to scale up and digitize the entire country. I think we will proceed step by step as data becomes available and partner with other organizations that can provide us with these images. However, this process will be slow if it is not centralized. If the Ministry of Economy or the Ministry of Defense will come to us with images, we can do it quickly for the whole of Ukraine.

LDaily: Share the company’s first results over the past 2 years.

V. Lopushanskyi: We have achieved a lot, starting from the beginning. We have digitized about 250 settlements for destroyed buildings and infrastructure. We have digitized thousands of square kilometers for pyrotechnic contamination. And now we have almost completed a working prototype of a drone equipped with several sensors – infrared, regular camera, and magnetometer. Just today, we are testing at the Kamianets-Podilskyi range, where military experts are placing real mines, and we are flying over these real mines to validate and check the technology in combat conditions. In two weeks, we will be in the Kharkiv region flying over real minefields. Before this, we tested all winter at ranges with inactive mines, which we placed and tested ourselves. Now we are dealing with real combat mines. And in two weeks – it will be combat conditions, not combat conditions but mined fields.

Once we start marking real minefields on our map, it will mark the beginning of territories we have directly flown over with drones. Previously, we flew over areas, but it wasn’t a comprehensive inspection, just a visual one. But visual inspection finds only 20-30%, depending on vegetation levels. If the grass is high, as in many fields now, nothing is visible visually. Sensors like infrared, magnetometers, and ground-penetrating radars are needed. So, we have refined this technology and are ready to go into the field and scale up.

LDaily: Who are your partners? Do you do everything on your own?

V. Lopushanskyi: Specifically for the project with the magnetometer and camera, we have partners like HALO Trust, who assist with equipment, a testing range, and test mines, as well as their expertise. Another partner is “Agrosem,” which helps with equipment, personnel, and supports this project. We also partner with Mission East, a Danish fund that has invested in the visual inspection of areas where debris is being cleared. We have already developed a prototype camera that we install statically at debris sites. As people clear the debris, any mines or explosive objects that might be underneath are detected by the camera, which then signals for people to move away so that the State Emergency Service or other demining operators can remove the explosive item, allowing people to continue working safely. Several projects are running in parallel. We hope to finish most of them by mid-spring, so they can start bringing benefits and ensuring people’s safety.

LDaily: Is there a way to donate to your platform?

V. Lopushanskyi: Unfortunately, we are not a charitable or public organization. We are a company, and as far as I know, we cannot accept donations as a company, so we don’t. However, we would be happy to collaborate with charitable organizations that are raising funds for demining. Soon, we will be conducting training for the State Emergency Service in Kyiv, Kherson, Mykolaiv, and Kharkiv on remote sensing using drones. We will bring our equipment, conduct training sessions, teach them how to use it, and provide a list of equipment they need to do this themselves, connected to our platform. If other charitable organizations want to purchase this equipment for them, we can partner in this way.

LDaily: Your company is also attracting investments for Ukraine’s reconstruction. Are there many interested parties now?

V. Lopushanskyi: We are IT specialists, we create software – that’s what we do best. We developed a platform, integrated artificial intelligence into it, and provide it to other companies directly involved in reconstruction. We supply data on destroyed buildings, enrich these objects on our map with various other data: cadastral register information, data from the damaged and destroyed property registry, addresses, building volume information, and other parameters. This way, construction companies have all the information they need to rebuild, and we partner with them. These companies, or local and regional administrations, attract funds and set priorities for the buildings or infrastructure objects that need to be rebuilt.

For example, on Friday we are going to the Chernihiv Regional State Administration. Soon, an online interactive map will be available for all their employees, detailing all the destroyed property in the Chernihiv region. They will be able to work efficiently with this information. We also plan to integrate with the “Dream” platform, where project planning for reconstruction will take place. We will synchronize with them, link their system to ours, and ours to theirs, thereby exchanging data and providing each other with the necessary information to attract more external funds for reconstruction. However, we do not engage directly in reconstruction – it’s not our profile.

LDaily: How do you assess the impact of your platform on the recovery process in Ukraine?

V. Lopushanskyi: We are significantly accelerating the process. External investors, our partners from Europe, the US, and Canada, want to see a transparent process and a clear picture – how the object looked before the destruction, that it was indeed destroyed, how it looks after the destruction, and after the reconstruction. For this purpose, we even create 3D models. We fly a drone around the building, show how it looked before the destruction, and after the reconstruction, we will also fly over it and show the after view. This is very transparent. Donors and investors can go online and, while sitting in their offices somewhere in Denmark or elsewhere, Germany, see the progress of the reconstruction. We do the same for interiors, inside buildings. If a room was destroyed and then restored, or a shelter was built, we create a 3D model: here, look.

LDaily: What forms of cooperation do you offer?

V. Lopushanskyi: We have been operating on our own initiative for quite a long time, so people are getting exhausted. After working like this for a year, the team has spent all their funds. They also need to live on something. Additionally, we need to cover our infrastructure, which is quite resource-intensive because neural networks require powerful servers. Therefore, for specific projects, we usually calculate: the salaries of people and the necessary computing power. For example, if you need to digitize an area or a settlement. Depending on your goals, we form a proposal for you: we can fly a drone or find satellite data, what exactly do you need? Depending on the quality, you choose what is required. Purchasing satellite images or flying a drone -this also costs money. We calculate this in the estimate. Second, we need to digitize the material with neural networks. The server costs this much. These data need to be stored somewhere, serviced – large volumes of data need to be stored securely so that no one can steal them. And we ensure this. So, we calculate cloud service, computing power, and the salaries of several engineers who will service, map, and deliver the data to the client. We provide an estimate with 3-4 points, and you decide how much you are ready to invest in this project. Furthermore, if an organization does not have funds, and we do get such requests, we consider where to get these satellite images – from some open sources, possibly finding donors, etc.

LDaily: Are many government bodies contacting you now?

V. Lopushanskyi: The “eRestoration” project from the Ministry of Restoration contacted us. We launched a pilot project with them, which they call an experiment, to digitize destroyed houses in temporarily occupied territories – where this is only possible from satellites. We successfully completed this experiment with them. Now we are thinking about how to scale this effort.

We are waiting for feedback. If successful, we will soon digitize the entire temporarily occupied territory, and the ministry will start providing some assistance to people whose houses were destroyed there, so they can somehow arrange their lives here.

LDaily: What are the company’s plans for the future?

V. Lopushanskyi: Since we have now deeply integrated our technology into the processes of reconstruction and demining, we want to scale this entire effort. We have an ambitious plan to digitize all of Ukraine on a regular basis. If we are provided with a data source and sufficient server capacity, we could perform such scans once a month. Unfortunately, we are constantly under attack, and there are always destructions somewhere. Having such scans would allow us to respond immediately.

Regarding demining, we want to do the same for pyrotechnic contamination and crater assessment. We aim to scale our technology so that all demining operators, the State Emergency Service, and other certified personnel can use our platform, leveraging our neural networks to digitize mine locations -from visual inspections to magnetometers and other sensors. This would provide as much information as possible about mined areas, delivering this data to demining operators so they can perform their work more efficiently and safely. Most importantly, it would allow them to work faster. Finding mines is the most challenging task. Using drones, we can accelerate this process tens or even hundreds of times.

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