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