How Can Drones Stop Wildfires

i was drifting down a river in an

inflatable tube

enjoying the summer sun when something

caught my eye

in the distance a column of black smoke

rose above the city

looming across the sky as something went

up in flames beneath it

i’d flown to oregon a couple weeks

earlier to escape the strict quarantine

regulations in panama

but at that moment i wanted to go see

what was going on and help if needed

although the fire looked close it was

actually miles away

and i couldn’t do anything about it i

absolutely hated that feeling

in the 2020 fire season four million

acres of land

have gone up in flames in california

alone recently

a single fire the august complex fire

has surpassed one million acres in size

classifying it as a gigafire and like

the thousands of other fires

across california oregon and other

western

states it’s ravaging the climate the

environment

and destroying homes the conditions

enabling these fires have been traced

directly to the climate crisis

and their effects directly contribute to

it in a vicious cycle

i thought about these fires and what i

could do to help one thing was certain

i wouldn’t stand by and watch as organ

burned

the main problem was finding a solution

that could take a fire’s ideal

conditions

abundance of dry fuel hot dry and windy

weather

and factor them out of the equation as

quickly as possible

the best way to combat ideal conditions

is to stop these wildfires early

at 10 acres not 100 000. conventional

solutions utilize some sort of early

warning system

namely firewatch towers and cameras

which have been proven crucial in the

early prevention of forest wildfires in

california

on october of 2017 a fire in sonoma

county raged for weeks until containment

burning over 100 000 acres of land and

killing 44 people

graham kent the lead researcher at

university of nevada

stated that cameras during the 2017

firestorm would have enabled a quick

determination

of the number and size of the fires as

well as their locations

on december of 2017 a wildfire erupted

in the same area

but was detected and contained early and

only spread to four thousand acres

a massive win and proof of concept for

an aerial view

problem solved not exactly although fire

watch towers

and cameras are effective they cannot

function in remote inhospitable

environments

without essential infrastructure the

camera system used in sonoma county came

out at around seven hundred

thousand dollars not a very accessible

or scalable solution

but an aerial view can be obtained

through other means ideally one more

effective and more economical drones

check all the boxes

the drone market is a rapidly expanding

two billion dollar

industry with applications in everything

from agriculture to military

the versatile and economic nature of

drones mean they can quickly adapt to

suit a user’s needs

with relatively little development so i

thought to myself

i’ll just build the drone this

is the parrot bebop 2 and like other

parrot drones

it has an open client protocol which

allows it to be easily modified

easy software modification was a must 4g

had to be available for upgrading the

drone to unlimited range

ir lock for precision landing and most

importantly

custom control algorithms i use the

repository to control the drone via node

javascript

a platform that enables fast and

efficient

yet scalable networks the same

repository has the ability to stream

video from the drone camera feed

which was fed directly into a computer

vision algorithm that would

automatically detect smoke from a

distance

when paired with one or more identical

drones charging rotations allow for at

least one drone in the sky at all times

the drone can now autonomously patrol

the skies for signs of fire

if smoke is detected the drone

communicates back to a server and

provides details about the fire

such as its bearings estimated size and

its urgency based on factors like

proximity to populated areas

you may be thinking well if drones are

so good

why aren’t they used extensively right

now well

small objects like birds or drones don’t

really mix well with airplanes

and on numerous occasions large flame

retardant drops were called off due to

rogue photography drones

seriously hindered firefighting efforts

in these instances

this was a main factor when designing

the patrol drone although drones and

firefighting may not currently have the

best relationship

it’s important that we give a new

solution a chance this issue is pressing

and unexpected solutions may be the ones

we need right now especially with

climate change’s effects

impacting firefighting efforts studies

have shown that climate change is a

major driver in western forest fire

growth the national oceanic and

atmospheric administration

or noaa formed an ongoing wildfire

research program

firex which found that climate change

will sharpen the problem

the area burned is projected to at least

double for every degree of warming

to stress the importance of that

statistic the burn area is estimated to

double

for every degree of global warming but

how does climate change directly impact

wildfires

in an interview with carbon brief dr

christina santon

a wildfire researcher from swansea

university

stated that climate change can increase

the risk of severe fires by causing

vegetation to dry out

this can create tinderbox conditions

meaning that

if a fire is sparked it can spread very

quickly over large areas

in the current fire season over 91

billion

tons of carbon dioxide have been

released into the atmosphere

from california alone which is much

larger than the estimated impact

of emissions legislation with this

projection

california wildfires make up a third of

the world’s approximated carbon dioxide

emissions this year

one third we need to rethink wildfire

prevention and do more to slow the

effects

of record wildfire seasons that are the

new normal

an ounce of prevention is worth a pound

of cure

although many people know of that saying

what they might not know is that

benjamin

franklin wrote that to his philadelphia

newspaper when he returned from boston

in 1733

impressed by the city’s fire

preparations i believe that this sounds

of prevention

is worth a pound of cure although my

solution is in its infancy

and a better solution may arise this

project may offer a piece

in the puzzle of mitigating climate

change’s effects

take a moment to close your eyes and

imagine this

in the next year the united states

forest service

bureau of land management and other

government organizations fully endorse

the developed product think solar panel

charging station

thermal imagery longer battery etc

noah and the federal aviation

administration authorized the patrol

drone and it’s sent out in the thousands

instead of a single seven hundred

thousand dollar camera to cover one

location

seven hundred locations could be covered

by one thousand dollar drones

imagine the possible impact when like in

sonoma county

a 100 000 acre fire is limited to 4 000

acres because of this camera network

hundreds of thousands of acres could be

saved

i aim to further develop this project

and take the final version to key fire

authorities

for testing and eventual implementation

for next year’s fire season

impact like that which i imagined is 100

feasible and i believe it can be

achieved anyone could do something like

that

as a teenager i know for a fact what

frustration feels like

i know for a fact that many young people

want to do something about climate

change

that they are tired of insufficient

action and they want to make a

difference

the difference is made when we stop

putting constraints on what we can

and cannot do thank you