Climate Change and Natural Risk Management: The Relationship Between the Precautionary Principle and Artificial Intelligence

Abstract One objective of the smart city concept pertains to the broad environmental dimension, including the increasingly relevant management of natural risks due to the significant impacts of climate change. Consequently, the use of new technologies, such as artificial intelligence systems, will undoubtedly play a fundamental role in the evolution of risk administration models, principles, and categories. This research aims to highlight several deeply interconnected evolutionary trends in the relationship between digitalization and environmental risk management: the growing nexus between the precautionary principle and the right to environmental information; the role of new technologies in this context; and the shifting focus of the precautionary principle from administrative action to its “organizing function”. To this end, this paper will primarily examine current artificial intelligence-based environmental monitoring and population alert systems.