Fighting fires with satellites and drones

THE DISASTROUS FIRE ON THE PORT HILLS in Canterbury earlier this year saw the first combined use of satellite imagery and drones in containing a blaze in New Zealand.

And forestry consultant, David Herries of Interpine, can see these high-tech tools becoming increasingly important in combating rural fires in the future, as well as assisting foresters in their work.

Mr Herries, who is also a rural fire officer and Resource & GIS Analyst, General Manager Fire & Emergency NZ, told the ForestTECH 2017 conference in Rotorua last month that when he was called to help fight the Port Hills conflagration one of the first things he did was check the latest satellite images for the area.

Until recently, satellite imagery was only useful for providing historic data, which could be weeks or months old, but now a number of satellites pass over New Zealand regularly and some provide free access to their images. He found one that had passed over within hours.

“Using satellite images we could see the extent of the fire,” says Mr Herries, adding that this gave fire fighters a good overview of what they were facing.

In a fire that is spread over a wide area, satellites can be useful in providing a wideranging view, even when the ground is obscured by smoke and clouds, as observers can see near infrared photos of the surface.

Mr Herries called in further assistance from his Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) crew in Rotorua, who flew to Christchurch to deploy drones over the fires, providing real-time coverage of the action much closer to the action.

Images provided by the drones was used to help direct fire fighters to where they were most needed, as the fire raged across the hills. And after the fire has passed through, drones were then used to pinpoint hot spots, some under the surface, that needed to be doused.

Mr Herries says the two technologies proved that satellites and drones could work in real time during a fire emergency.

With more satellites going into orbit over New Zealand, he says the opportunity to make use of this resource in general forestry work is also expanding. He believes that even though the free images made available for public use are relatively small in scale, they can still be worthwhile for tasks such as monitoring harvesting operations and checking on storm damage.

Illustrating this, he showed the audience an image of harvesting taking place in a woodlot that clearly identified where the trees were being removed.

NZL