{"id":434513,"date":"2023-01-24T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-01-24T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/innovationorigins.com\/?p=434513"},"modified":"2023-01-24T12:00:00","modified_gmt":"2023-01-24T11:00:00","slug":"five-innovative-solutions-for-fighting-wildfires","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/en\/five-innovative-solutions-for-fighting-wildfires\/","title":{"rendered":"Five innovative solutions for fighting wildfires"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Why we write about this topic:<\/summary>

Wildfires can seriously affect people’s safety and can cause a lot of irreparable damage to the area.<\/p><\/div><\/details>\n\n\n\n

Wildfires in the Netherlands will become more intense in the coming years and sometimes even unextinguishable, experts from KNMI, Wageningen University, VU University Amsterdam, Deltares, and the Netherlands Institute for Public Security (NIPV) warn in a study<\/a>. Fortunately, many companies are working on solutions for this major problem. Here are five innovative solutions for wildfire fighting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1) Look from very high up with satellites<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Under the guise: prevention is better than cure, we can use satellites to predict forest fires. Such a satellite is full of sensors. ESA<\/a>‘s Sentinel-2 has a so-called multispectral instrument. This allows you to see thirteen different wavelengths of light, both visible and in the invisible infrared spectrum. That produces a lot of data. All this data is sent to Earth every five days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Such a detection system could perhaps also be used to predict forest fires. Detecting anomalies or changes in satellite images is already possible. But a lot of other data about, for example, temperature and rainfall are needed. Only then could an algorithm warn about certain risk areas.<\/p>\n\n\n

<\/a>
<\/div><\/div>
Detecting forest fires on satellite images with the help of AI – Innovation Origins<\/div>
Some fifty AI experts will begin working with ESA satellite images as of September to use these images to develop algorithms that accurately depict man\u2019s influence on the earth.<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n

2) Predicting forest fires using sensors on trees<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Closer to Earth, the German company Dryad Networks has developed a system that can detect forest fires at an early stage. The system consists of a network of small solar-powered sensors. These hang from trees and measure temperature, humidity, and air pressure levels. Detecting a starting forest fire can be done by a special chip with a gas sensor. It can issue a warning in less than an hour, even if there is still only a smoldering fire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Current camera and satellite based warning systems can take a long time to detect a fire. This sometimes takes several hours or even days. Dryad Networks’ sensors can use artificial intelligence (AI) to distinguish forest fires from other heat emitting sources, such as diesel vehicles.<\/p>\n\n\n

<\/a>
<\/div><\/div>
Sensors can help to catch forest fires in time – Innovation Origins<\/div>
To tackle wildfires, a German start-up developed a technology that can predict them, using a widespread network of small sensors.<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n

3) Detection by drone<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Drones can also be used for early detection of wildfires. For example, the long-range drone Avy Aera. Avy is investigating the use of drones in the early detection of wildfires together with the Het Veluws Bosbrandweer Comit\u00e9 (VBC). Finding such fires with the help of artificial intelligence is new in the Netherlands. In addition, the camera images are made available in real-time. This has also never been seen before in the Netherlands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To this date, aircraft have been used to monitor nature reserves against fires in the Netherlands. This project investigates whether the use of drones can be an alternative in National Park De Hoge Veluwe. Drones are expected to improve speed, the size of the area to be monitored, and imaging in the control room.<\/p>\n\n\n

<\/a>
<\/div><\/div>
Long-range drone being tested in fight against forest fires – Innovation Origins<\/div>
Dutch-made long-range Avy Aera drones will detect potential wildfires faster and over a greater range in forest areas.<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n

4) Extinguish better<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

If prevention has not been successful, extinguishing must of course take place as quickly as possible. The\u00a0German Aerospace Center<\/a>\u00a0(DLR) held a competition in October 2022 to design firefighting aircraft of the future. First place went to the team from the University of Stuttgart with the INFERNO design. (Intelligent FirE RespoNse Operation).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The aircraft is a so-called combination helicopter. With eight horizontal rotors, it can take off and land vertically. It is powered by a hybrid electrical system in which a gas turbine supports a rechargeable battery and electric motors. INFERNO can take in water while skimming low over water, hover over a lake and suck water into its tanks, or simply take in water at an airport. This aircraft can therefore also take in water in small bodies of water, where this is impossible for the current fire-fighting aircraft.<\/p>\n\n\n

<\/a>
<\/div><\/div>
Firefighting aircraft of the future are flexible, autonomous and can land vertically – Innovation Origins<\/div>
For the German DLR Design Challenge 2022, students designed aircraft that could drop at least 11,000 liters of water over a fire at once.<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n

5) Changing the weather<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The last method seems the most futuristic and also the most uncertain, but the idea is simple: just make it rain! There’s been a lot of research into manipulating clouds to try and make it rain. This even succeeded, albeit under special circumstances. Silver iodide, salt or frozen CO2<\/sub> causes a number of large droplets to form in a cloud around condensation cores. They collide with smaller droplets, and that collision is essential to get rain or snow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The best results were achieved when clouds were injected from the sky with an airplane. However, it is cheaper and easier to infect clouds from the ground with smoke pots. Furthermore, the weather conditions must be good: the wind direction must come from a certain angle and the wind shouldn\u2019t be too strong or too soft; the air temperature should not be warmer than -8 degrees Celsius; and the air must be humid enough. Only then is the process necessary for precipitation started.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, there is no evidence that the technique can also be used in flat areas, such as the Netherlands. The technology also has limitations. Silver iodide and salt are harmful when released into the environment in large quantities. In short, we shouldn’t have too high expectations of this technique.<\/p>\n\n\n

<\/a>
<\/div><\/div>
AI and cloud seeding could protect against extreme weather – Innovation Origins<\/div>
German weather experts see innovation to slow down climate change as the only feasible thing to do. Innovations are therefore needed.<\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wildfires in the Netherlands will become more intense in the coming years and sometimes even unextinguishable, experts from KNMI, Wageningen University, VU University Amsterdam, Deltares, and the Netherlands Institute for Public Security (NIPV) warn in a study. Fortunately, many companies are working on solutions for this major problem. Here are five innovative solutions for wildfire […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2482,"featured_media":493044,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[69735,70711,74087,40622,65013],"location":[6763],"article_type":[43139],"serie":[],"archives":[],"internal_archives":[75556],"reboot-archive":[],"class_list":["post-434513","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sustainability-nl","tag-ai-nl-3","tag-drones-2","tag-firefighting-aircraft","tag-satellites","tag-wildfires","location-netherlands","article_type-features"],"blocksy_meta":[],"acf":{"subtitle":"Fighting wildfires is very important and can be done better and faster thanks to these five innovative solutions.","text_display_homepage":false},"author_meta":{"display_name":"Rik Durkstra","author_link":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/author\/rikdurkstra\/"},"featured_img":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/stubble-burning.jpg","coauthors":[],"tax_additional":{"categories":{"linked":["Sustainability<\/a>"],"unlinked":["Sustainability<\/span>"]},"tags":{"linked":["AI<\/a>","drones<\/a>","firefighting aircraft<\/a>","satellites<\/a>","wildfires<\/a>"],"unlinked":["AI<\/span>","drones<\/span>","firefighting aircraft<\/span>","satellites<\/span>","wildfires<\/span>"]}},"comment_count":"0","relative_dates":{"created":"Posted 3 years ago","modified":"Updated 3 years ago"},"absolute_dates":{"created":"Posted on January 24, 2023","modified":"Updated on January 24, 2023"},"absolute_dates_time":{"created":"Posted on January 24, 2023 12:00 pm","modified":"Updated on January 24, 2023 12:00 pm"},"featured_img_caption":"","series_order":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434513","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2482"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=434513"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434513\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/493044"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=434513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=434513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=434513"},{"taxonomy":"location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/location?post=434513"},{"taxonomy":"article_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article_type?post=434513"},{"taxonomy":"serie","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/serie?post=434513"},{"taxonomy":"archives","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/archives?post=434513"},{"taxonomy":"internal_archives","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/internal_archives?post=434513"},{"taxonomy":"reboot-archive","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/reboot-archive?post=434513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}