TowerScout: Automated cooling tower detection from aerial imagery for Legionnaires' Disease outbreak investigation

Overview

Development stage

DeployedSource: c) Deployed – The use case is being actively authorized or utilized to support the functions or mission of an agency.

High-impact designation

Not high-impactSource: c) Not high-impact

Impact justification

Not reported

Start date

2021-05 (month precision)Source: May-21

Withheld from public reporting

NoSource: a) No

Mission

Topic area

Health and Medical

Operational functions

Image and video analysis Derived by keyword rules; see methodology

Problem the AI is intended to solve

Rapid identification of cooling towers that could potentially be spreading Legionella bacteria during outbreaks, enabling faster and more efficient outbreak response.

Expected benefits

Detects cooling towers approximately 600 times faster than manual searches. Enables more efficient and timely response during Legionella outbreaks. Improves public health response and outbreak containment.

System outputs

Detection and classification of cooling towers within aerial imagery.

Technology

AI classification

Computer visionSource: Computer Vision: AI that processes and interprets visual data (e.g., images and videos).

System name(s)

EDAV (Enterprise Data Analytics and Visualization Platform)

Custom-developed code

Yes

Public source code

github.com ↗

Sourcing

How it was built

Contract and in-houseSource: c) Developed with both contracting and in-house resources

Vendor (as reported)

Not reported

Vendors (standardized)

None on the standard list

A vendor is the supplier named by the agency. It does not identify the underlying model or AI technology.

Data and privacy

Involves PII

No

Privacy Impact Assessment

Not reported

Authorization to Operate

Yes

Demographic features

k) None of the above

Training and evaluation data

Aerial imagery data used for object detection and image classification.

Federal Data Catalog

Not reported

Governance

0 of 8 minimum-practice questions answered. A blank answer means the agency reported nothing; it does not mean the practice is absent.

Potential impacts and how they were identified

Not reported