UAV Application for Wildfire Detection, Prevention and Management

Dear Colleagues,

In the recent years, forest fires have been on the rise, destroying the forests that are the lungs of the earth, providing oxygen for humans and animals. They burn wildlife, houses, cities, humans, cause landslides, and many other catastrophic events. Furthermore, most of these fires are manmade. Drone technology could help prevent these fires by monitoring the forest areas where people are violating camping restrictions, smoking and discarding their cigarettes in forest areas, and engaging in other activities which have the potential to increase the possibility of forest fires. After a forest fire takes place, the communication infrastructure, which includes antennas, power supplies, network servers, are often burned down and are no longer functional. Therefore, a drone with a network router and proper configuration could restore communications between firefighters and all interested parties. In addition, a drone with the proper AI can provide information related to the direction and extent of a fire, as well as advise firefighters on how to effectively fight the fire. The European Commission in an effort to reduce harmful emissions to the environment has drafted a document titled: “Preventing and fighting extreme wildfires with the integration and demonstration of innovative means.”

https://ec.europa.eu/info/sites/info/files/research_and_innovation/green_deal/gdc_stakeholder_engagement_topic_01-1_fighting_wildfires.pdf

Topics covered in this issue:

1. UAV Design;
2. Materials Choice;
3. Avionics;
4. Instrumentation-Sensors.
5. Digital Image Processing;
6. Pattern Recognition;
7. UAV-Intelligence;
8. Communications for control, telemetry, video transmission;
9. Ground station design;
10. Automatic control-manual control design;
11. Recognition of critical elements for wildfire prevention;
12. Proper communication of alarm events for immediate action so that fires will be prevented;
13. Pattern recognition of events with the potential to cause fires;
14. Transmission of pertinent data to the firefighters so they can fight the fire efficiently;
15. Creating an intelligent system from past experiences to minimize wildfires;
16. Anything relevant to the subject area.

Prof. Dr. Evangelos Yfantis
Dr. Ernesto Zamora Ramos
Dr. Sarah Harris
Guest Editors

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