Artificial intelligence, paired with space-derived data, could soon join the battle against bushfires in NSW, ready to speed up detection and response times and prevent a repeat of the Country’s catastrophic bushfire season that arrived earlier this year.
Announced by the Ministers responsible for Disaster Recovery, John Barilaro and for Jobs, Investment and Tourism, Stuart Ayres, the State committed to supporting the recent 2020 Bushfire Data Quest to help predict future bushfire activity.
“There is no doubt the recent fires have left both a physical mark on our State’s landscape, and emotional one on its people,” Mr Barilaro said.
“Predicting the behaviour of bushfires is a hugely difficult problem, made more complicated by a myriad of factors such as fuel load, atmospheric conditions, soil moisture, and availability of water,” he said.
“Using data from satellites is a great advancement on the tools we have traditionally used with much of the task of planning on-the-ground bushfire response relying on the experience and instincts of fire-fighters – who are often volunteers.”
Mr Barilaro said the State was investigating how data from multiple satellites and local sensor networks could be used to create algorithms to help detect fires earlier, predict fire behaviour, and help emergency services respond more effectively.
Mr Ayres said the week-long 2020 Bushfire Data Quest brought together universities, research institutes earlier this month, as well as philanthropy and technology companies.
“It will tackle problems in new ways that can be difficult to replicate in traditional academic or industrial research settings,” Mr Ayres said.
“Teams of machine-learning specialists are working with bushfire researchers and leading data scientists, primed with information from multiple satellites and local sensor networks,” he said.
