With more than 8,000 miles of fiber and 20 million users in research and education, the Corporation for Education Network Initiatives in California, the nonprofit that connects the California Research and Education Network (CalREN) across schools and educational institutions, wants to fight fires with data.
"One promising — and proven — line of defense is connecting remote cameras and weather sensors across the state to a vast mesh of wireless and fiber-optic cable to relay data. The collected data is combined and analyzed to produce information that supports wildfire prevention, detection, and management," the CENIC blog reads.
This system — ALERTWildfire — is actively collaborating and partnering with local firefighters, GeoLinks, and CENIC."
In 2018, more than 150 fires have been fought using such a system, which includes universities in Nevada, Oregon and Southern California.
And CENIC wants the system to grow.
"Statewide expansion of this proven system would offer strategic advantages for early fire detection, situational awareness for first responders, fire mapping, predictive simulations, and evacuation planning," the blog continues. "Rapid investment in this shovel-ready system would soon save lives, property, habitat, and infrastructure across California, and the state would see an almost immediate return on its investment. Additional partners that would benefit from this effort and so might be approached for financial support are the insurance industry, technology accelerators, and local community organizations."
Real-time simulations are built out from towers outfitted with cameras, weather sensors and then passed to UC San Diego's super computer. The California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology's (Calit2) Qualcomm Institute also supports simulations.
Los Angeles, Orange and Ventura counties hold subscriptions to the visualization and mapping software.
