FIRE OBSERVATION TOWER
The most commonly used method is fire detection by human surveillance from fire watchtower. Fire watchtowers are built to monitor forest fires and used for communication during forest fires. They are built on the high peaks leading to monitor a large part of forest areas.
According to visibility analysis, different radius distances are used in different areas depending on the rough terrain. As general acceptance, the value of ten kilometres for rough terrain, and twenty kilometres for flat terrain are widely used (Ruiz 2000; Kucuk et al. 2017).
When observers detect a fire, they guide the pointer of the azimuth angle and report to a forest division by telephone or radio transmitter.
PATROLLING
Aerial patrolling
Ground patrolling is carried out by foresters and temporary fireguards. When the fires occur, the patrol people will have a communication with a base station, including fire watchtower and their headquarters.
Aerial patrolling is commonly used to enhance other methods of detection even though it is expensive.
The main working processes of this system starts with the patrolling detection for a forest fire, then report to fire watch-tower or forest enterprise office using a radio.
SATELLITE-BASED SYSTEM
Fire hot spots from satellite
Source : https://www.harrisonraine.com/communities-and-wildfire
Satellite images are mainly generated by two satellites which are the advanced very high-resolution radiometer (AVHRR) launched in 1998, and the moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) launched in 1999. The satellites can provide the images of the Earth once every two days, and the qualities of the images depend on weather condition.
The limitations of the satellite images are the low possibility to provide full coverage and the speed of detection. Satellites are located above the Earth's surface and infrared radiation from flames might be too weak to be detected. Therefore, the satellites are not the best choice to detect the forest fires at the early stages.
REMOTE SENSING
Ignition and spread of wildfires depend on fuel moisture and weather condition; as well as, fuel types and topography. These parameters are data which have been used for fire danger prediction systems. The satellite images combined with geographic and spatial analysis allow us to gather data both from vegetation response (Fuel), and environmental influences (Drought).
The pre-fire condition can be monitored by remote sensing. The first is related to Fuel type which can be a vegetation mapping from high-resolution images and can be linked to other pre-fire conditions variables such as topography.
Another pre-fire condition is related to fuel moisture conditions. Most of the remote sensing studies on live moisture fuel condition.
OPTICAL REMOTE SENSING
The first remote sensing studies on fuel moisture conditions monitoring using optical data, mainly NOAA-AVHRR NDVI images. NDVI based systems have been proposed to assess fire potentials and crop droughts or fire danger.
However, the NDVI data are only indirectly involved with fuel moisture conditions.
Optical remote sensing
Source : https://cdn.intechopen.com/pdfs/38093/InTech-Use_of_remote_sensing_in_wildfire_management.pdf
Another optical band which is related to fuel moisture content is the short wave infrared. Fuel moisture content is probably estimated by the water stress in the plant. The MODIS sensor were used into analytical model to retrieve fuel moisture content of shrublands.
Optical remote sensing
OPTICAL REMOTE SENSING
Surface temperature is also related to fuel moisture condition, and also useful for detecting water stress and plant water status.
Using both thermal infrared and optical data can improve the correlation with fuel moisture content variables, but there is a limitation including cloud cover.
Global surface temperature
RADAR REMOTE SENSING
The radar backscatter measurement depends on vegetation type, and biomass, topography, and water presence, and moisture, and weather condition including rainfall. The radar images will express the weather conditions between the wet season and dry season.
Radar remote sensing dashboard
OPTICAL SENSOR CAMERA
The technology advancement of a camera, image processing, industrial computers and sensors resulted in advance automated for early warning systems.
The different types of camera systems used different algorithms which rely on the concept of smoke and fire glow detection. The camera will capture the images which are a number of pixels. The image processing unit will track motion between sequence images and compare the pixels where they contain the smoke and fire glow. Then using another algorithm to make a final decision whether the situation requires action or not
AlarmEYE
AlarmEYE is an intelligent video image fire detector in the forest using multi-frequency detection technique. It is based on the black and white colour frequency where the infrared can distinguish the flames and smoke.
AlarmEYE camera
EyeFi
EyeFi can provide images for fire agencies after the operator spots smoke by using the EYEfi software and GIS map to localise the smoke position on the ground.
EyeFi camera
Forest Fire Finder
Forest Fire Finder is a system based on atmosphere analysis instead of detecting fire glow and smoke. The system tracks the way the atmosphere absorbs the sunlight, so it can define different types of smoke based on the sources in the range of fifteen kilometres. The system can be installed in tree crowns for faster detection.
Forest Fire Finder
Source : https://noctulachannel.com/incendios-florestais-fogo-ngns/forest-fire-finder/
Forest Watch
ForestWatch is an optical system based on the sensor camera. The system provides a semiautomatic fire detection. The camera tower scans the forest in a range of 16-20 kilometres for a smoke during the day and fire glow during the night.
It is the most popular system in fire detection; however, a large number of false alarm are also generated.
Forest Fire Finder
Fire Watch
FireWatch is an automatic smoke detection within a range of 10-40 kilometres. The components consist of an optical sensor system, data transfer, and central office.
Fire Watch
Source : https://www.intechopen.com/books/forest-fire/forest-fire-monitoring
FireHawk
FireHawk is a risk management system that can localise the fires consisting of camera installation, wireless links, and machine vision layers which contain GIS and the ForestWatch software to locate and find the shortest path to the fires.
According to the project Tower in Tumut, Australia, with the three systems, the train human tower observer is more reliable and faster; therefore, it is not possible to rely on optical camera only. However, it might be useful to improve the performance of the human observer or cover unstaffed tower; as well as, the remote area.
The limitations of optical camera are the distance and the size of fires. The systems are not able to take landscape topography in the calculation, which leads to the mislocated fires. Optical systems also can create false alarm caused by various incident such as reflection. Weather conditions and night vision also affect camera performances.
Finally, it is expensive to install the camera tower and communication infrastructure inside the forest.
WIRELESS SENSOR NETWORK
A new technology called Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) can solve a sight problem of optical cameras. Sensors are able to influence the physical aspects such as pressure, temperature, gases, radiation, humidity, and others.
Sensor network normally positioned in a large-scale inaccessible places and under harsh environment for a period of time. This system relied on low date rate and short ranges communication. The advancement of this technology allow people to use in early forest fire detection.
Forest Fire Surveillance System (FFSS)
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Forest Fire Surveillance System (FFSS) is a South Korean system done by sensor network to observe, temperature, humidity, and illumination. The data from this device will go into a database to make a calculation and comparison for evaluating the damages.
Structure of FFSS
FireWxNet
FireWxNet is a system for studying the forest fires behavior. It is proposed in Canada. The system uses wireless sensor network to provide data for weather status and camera to provide the fire images. They control the sensors with a small GPS device to provide the location information.
The system depends on fire weather index ( FWI ) to calculate the possibility of fire, the speed of fire, weather observation, moisture content, and the fuel code.
The link set up with a directional antenna
FIRESENSE
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FIRESENSE is a Specific Targeted Research Project of the European Union's 7th Framework Program Environment including climate change. It is a very advanced system which relies on optical, temperature sensors, cameras, and weather stations. All these sensors will collect and process data in order to give a clear understand for local authorities. Its target is to monitor remote areas and provide warning system.
Framework of FIRESENSE
The benefit of Wireless Sensor Network technology is that the towers or complicated communication systems are not necessary built or set up. This technology works on short communication links and provides real-time monitoring.