Participation in
FIRESENSE:
Fire Detection and Management through a Multi-
Sensor Network for the Protection of Cultural Heritage
Areas from the Risk of Fire and Extreme Weather
Conditions
Sponsor:
European Commission, 7th Framework Programme
Project Number:
244088
The proposed project aims to develop an automatic early warning system
to remotely monitor areas of archaeological and cultural interest from
the risk of fire and extreme weather conditions. Since these areas
have been treasured and tended for very long periods of time, they are
usually surrounded by old and valuable vegetation or situated close to
forest regions, which exposes them to an increased risk of
fire. Additionally, extreme weather conditions (such as storms and
floods) pose great risks for these sites. The proposed system will
take advantage of recent advances in multi-sensor surveillance
technologies, using a wireless sensor network capable of monitoring
different modalities (e.g. temperature) andoptical and infrared
cameras, as well as local weather stations on the deployment site. The
signals collected from these sensors will be transmitted to a
monitoring center, which will employ intelligent computer vision and
pattern recognition algorithms as well as data fusion techniques to
automatically analyze sensor information. The proposed system will be
capable of generating automatic warning signals for local authorities
whenever a dangerous situation arises. Detecting the starting position
of a fire is only the first step in fire fighting. After detecting a
wildfire, the main focus should be the estimation of the propagation
direction and speed in order to help forest fire management.
FIRESENSE will provide real-time information about the evolution of
fire using wireless sensor network data. Futhermore, it will estimate
the propagation of the fire based on the fuel model of the area and
other important parameters such as wind speed, slope, and aspect of
the ground surface. Finally, a 3-D Geographic Information System (GIS)
environment will provide visualisation of the predicted fire
propagation. At the same time, local weather stations will provide
information such as temperature, wind direction and speed, relative
humidity, barometric pressure, and rain gauge. Weather forecast data
will also be used by the system.
Investigators
Starting Date: December 2009
Duration: 36 months (3 years)