The Conservationist Who Turned 40 Terabytes of Public Data Into a Video Game
Summary
The article profiles conservationist Raffael Hickisch and his project turning 40 TB of public data into a video game and a data-driven conservation tool. It details how 100 VMs run in parallel to process LIDAR data of Austria, the use of AI agents to automate data collection, and the creation of an open-source, game-like visualization to communicate conservation insights. The piece highlights the role of public datasets, cloud tooling, and code-driven design in enabling impactful, data-centric conservation work.