Intelligent systems for bushfire defense
Intelligent systems for bushfire defense
Motivated by the catastrophic Australian fire season in 2019/2021 and the Bushfire Data Quest, Trillium embarked on further work to understand bushfire situational awareness and management systems. We ran a user-led concurrent design workshop that brought together active firefighters with data and technology experts to define current best practices, and to identify strategic opportunities for applying new technology with maximum impact. Following the workshop we spent six months researching and testing the key issues and options emerging with colleagues and collaborators from across the bushfires system.
In this report we are presenting a system-level overview of bushfire management in Australia and New Zealand, with a particular focus on fireground operations. We identify challenges and significant pain points experienced by active firefighters, and show how technology might solve issues in the near future.
We are releasing this work as an open report in the hope it proves useful to a broad range of stakeholders - organisations seeking to understand fire management processes and the needs of ground crew, companies developing technical solutions, government departments who want to understand possible applications of technology, firefighters at different levels, and the general public who want a broad overview of the firefighting effort.
If you could like to get in touch to discuss any aspects of the report, please do send us an email.
Bushfire Situational Awareness
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Workshop participants at the Australian National Concurrent Design Facility (ANCDF).
This was the first use of the UNSW ANCDF for a purpose other than designing satellite missions. Left to right: Garry Hooker (ACT RFS), Jan-Christian Meyer (UNSW), Rob Gore (ACT RFS), Cormac Purcell (Trillium Technologies) and Sheida Hadavi (ARDC). Other attendees participated via videoconference links.
Image Credit: Rob Gore, ACT Rural Fire Service
Partners and Participating Organisations
We are incredibly grateful to our partners lending their time and insight during the workshop.
