A team of Galician researchers from the Mathematical and Technological Research Center of Galicia (CITMAga) is working on a project that proposes optimize the response of firefighting operations before forest epidemics, a scourge from which Galicia suffers waves every summer, based on a set of algorithms. The goal is that after adequate learning, they can contribute to creating technologies that detect their emergence and improve efficiency during deployments to fight epidemics.
María José Ginzo, professor of statistics and operations research at USC and a member of the project, says her research focuses on data analysis, “including thermal images, optimization algorithms and machine learning » in its conception: “The objective is improve fire detection accuracy, deployed resource efficiency, and safety of operations. Its utilities will include the creation of heat and risk maps, real-time detection of fire perimeter and movement, estimation of aircraft trajectories and optimal planning of air resources.
Another part of his team’s work is to improve those that already exist, aimed at resource planning, calculating aircraft trajectories and analyzing fire risks. And there is a third objective: to create a system which, automatically, measure the efficiency of water discharges in real time in aerial interventions, their “footprints”. “The purpose of the water releases is to cool the area so that the fire is extinguished, which is why it is necessary to repeat the releases at different times. Thus, the traces of releases allow us to know, on the one hand, if the fire is evolving or decreasing and, on the other hand, where it is evolving,” explains Ginzo.
With this in mind, a second axis of research concerns the design of algorithms analyzing the post-fire regeneration in the environment and provide “key indicators” for monitoring operations. According to the researcher, “everything is designed to optimize fire response, improve resource efficiency and increase the safety of interventions.”
Emergency air services operator Avincis is collaborating on the project; It is funded by the Galician Innovation Agency (Gain) and is part of the strategy of the European Initiative on Civil Drones, led by the Xunta and focused on the generation of solutions and products that optimize the provision of services public. Ginzo adds that “the results will be essential” to develop nnew technologies that reduce affected areas, improve brigade security and coordination, and reduce costs investment, operation and maintenance.
