J. R. MARTINEZ-DE DIOS AND A. OLLERO. International Symposium on Forest Fires.

FIRE DETECTION AND MONITORING TOOLS FOR FIRE FIGHTING

J. R. MARTINEZ-DE DIOS AND A. OLLERO Robotics, Computer Vision and Intelligent Control Group. Universidad de Sevilla Camino de los Descubrimientos sn, 41092, Sevilla, Spain {jdedios, aollero}@cartuja.us.es

Abstract The paper provides a brief description of several technologies that can be applied for forest fire detection and monitoring. First the paper presents some sensors and communication systems with potential applicability in fire fighting. Then, it describes some fire detection and monitoring systems on satellite platforms, on aerial platforms and on ground stations. The objective is not to present a comprehensive survey of the state of the technology but to illustrate how new technologies can help in forest fire detection and monitoring. The paper also describes some tools developed in the University of Seville (Spain) for forest fire detection and monitoring. The paper includes a false alarm reduction system that uses advanced image processing and the sensor fusion to discard false alarms in fire detection. The paper also includes a fire monitoring tool that automatically obtains in real time fire geometrical measures such as the position of the fire front, rate of spread or flames height from sequences of visual or infrared images from cameras at multiple locations. Key words: new technologies, sensors, fire detection, fire monitoring. 1. INTRODUCTION Forest fire is a very harmful problem in many countries with dramatic environmental and socio-economical consequences. It is a very complex problem and fight against forest fires involves heterogeneous resources. This paper presents some new technologies for forest fire detection and monitoring. Recently, new advances in sensor technology have motivated an explosion of outdoor sensors capable of measuring with high resolution and accuracy physical magnitudes such as infrared radiation and absolute position. Some of these devices are or can be applied in forest fire detection and monitoring. Infrared cameras can be used for forest fire detection and for fire monitoring. Some infrared technologies have experienced a moderate decrease in their costs in the last years. Visual images are applied in a considerable number of automatic smoke plume detection systems. Satellite-based Global Positioning Systems (GPS) are used to estimate with relatively low degree of uncertainty the absolute position of the means deployed for fire fighting. Terrestrial-based digital mobile communication systems such as GPRS can transmit voice and data at a rate of 9.6 kbps, which can be used for the transmission of compressed images. The new 3G generation of mobile digital communication systems can transmit data at up to 2 mbps. The application of new technologies to forest surveillance and fire detection and monitoring has motivated the development of a considerable variety of forest fire detection and monitoring systems. Several satellite-based automatic fire detection and 1

J. R. MARTINEZ-DE DIOS AND A. OLLERO. International Symposium on Forest Fires.

monitoring systems have been developed. Other fire detection and monitoring systems are mounted on vehicles such as ground and aerial means (airplanes and helicopters). Also, fire detection and monitoring systems in ground stations have been developed. Despite their high heterogeneity the greater majority of them are based on environment perception by using images and, in case of automatic systems by using computerized image processing. One of the main disadvantages of automatic fire detection systems is the high rate of false alarms. Recently, some systems for reducing the rate of false alarm in fire detection systems have been developed. These systems use advanced image processing techniques and the combination (fusion) of data from different sensors such as infrared and visual images. These systems also take into account geographical information and the meteorological conditions. Recently, a fire monitoring tool has been developed for automatic fire front measure. The system receives as inputs sequences of images (visual or infrared) from cameras on fixed positions or mounted on a vehicle (ground or aerial). The system is capable of automatically measuring in real time fire front geometrical features such as the position of the fire front, rate of spread or flames height. The system generates a georeferenced 3D graphical view of the fire front, which can be rendered from different positions. The monitoring tool is capable of communicating with a GIS and, of displaying views of the fire front model on a GIS. The system has been tested in many field experiments since 1998 obtaining promising results for its application in operational conditions. The paper is structured as follows. Section 2 presents some sensors and communication systems for fire detection and monitoring. Section 3 describes some fire detection and monitoring systems on satellite platforms. Section 4 and Section 5 present respectively fire detection and monitoring systems on aerial platforms and ground stations. The last sections are Conclusions and References. 2. NEW TECHNOLOGIES FOR FOREST FIRE FIGHTING 2.1 Sensors for forest fire fighting This Section briefly describes some of the most common sensors used for forest fire detection and monitoring. 2.1.1 Infrared cameras Infrared cameras are imaging sensors capable of providing images of the radiation intensity field within the infrared range of wavelength, throughout the scene. Three different wavelength bands are used in infrared technology: Near infrared: [0.75-3] m. Mid infrared: [3-6] m. Far infrared: [6-16] m. According to Wien law [Hudson, 1969], the temperature of a blackbody that emits on the infrared bands are: [1000-4000] K in the near infrared, [500-1000] K in the midinfrared and [188-500] K in the far infrared. From these values and taking in consideration the temperature of the fire it is easy to observe that the optimal results are expected to be obtained with cameras in the mid-infrared band. Figure 1 shows two

J. R. MARTINEZ-DE DIOS AND A. OLLERO. International Symposium on Forest Fires.

infrared cameras: an FLIR ThermaCam P20 and a Mitsubishi IRM-300. The first one is a thermographic camera in the far-infrared band. The second one is a nonthermographic camera in the mid-infrared band.

a)

b)

Figure 1: Two infrared cameras: a) FLIR ThermaCam P20 and b) Mitsubishi IRM-300. From an operational point of view, infrared cameras in the mid-infrared band obtain the highest performance. Mid-infrared band has the lowest atmospheric attenuation (and highest sensitivity), which is very relevant for fires detection. In the mid-infrared band the radiation intensity emitted by the embers at the fire base is considerably higher than that of the flames [Den Breejen, 1998], which appear almost transparent in the images. This effect facilitates the interpretation of the images. Smoke also appears almost transparent in mid infrared images. Besides, the CO2 gas generated by combustion presents an emission peak near 4.3 m. in the mid-infrared band. In the current state of the technology, infrared cameras in the mid-infrared band require cryogenic cooling systems, which increase the cost of the cameras, their maintenance, as well as the weight, size and power consumption. Far-infrared cameras require simple electronically-based cooling systems mainly based on Peltier effect or even no cooling systems at all. Thus, these cameras have lower costs, higher portability (lower weight, size and power consumption) and longer life. Infrared cameras can be applied in many fire fighting activities. These activities will be classified in pre-fire, fire and post-fire activities. In pre-fire activities they are intensively used for forest surveillance and forest detection (during day and night). In fire activities they can be used for fire monitoring and measurement as they can see through smoke. In post-fire activities they can be used for detection of smoldering fires. 2.1.2 Visual cameras Visual cameras provide images in the visible range [0.40.7] m. Two main types of sensors are used linear and matrix sensors. As well as with infrared cameras, optical systems are critical parts of the cameras. In pre-fire activities visual cameras are used in smoke plume detection (only during day). In fire activities they can be used in fire monitoring and measurement. 2.1.3 Global Positioning Systems Global positioning systems (GPS) are capable of providing absolute position of a point any the Globe. To different approaches can be considered: absolute GPS, in which a single device estimate the position by the signals received from the low-orbit satellites, and differential GPS, in which the errors in the position are corrected with a point of

J. R. MARTINEZ-DE DIOS AND A. OLLERO. International Symposium on Forest Fires.

known position that receives the similar signals from the satellites. The scheme of differential GPS is depicted in Figure 2. GPS systems can be used for fire monitoring and measuring (estimating the position of the fire fronts) and fire fighting management (estimating the position of the means and resources deployed for the attack). GPS is used for burned area mapping. EGNOS (already in tests) and Galileo (in the near future) systems will provide new global positioning services of improved accuracy.
GPS antenna GPS correction GPS antenna

Base station

Radio modem

Radio modem

Remote station Position estimation

Figure 2: Scheme of differential GPS. 2.1.3 Proximetry sensors Proximetry sensors are capable of measuring distances between objects. Two different basic technologies can be used: laser sensors and ultrasonic sensors. Laser sensors allow measuring larges distances than ultrasonic. Two basic types of laser sensors can be found: based on time-of-flight and based on phase. The distance errors are often lower than 0.3 m. Figure 3 shows a laser range finder that we use in monitoring of fire field experiments.

Figure 3: Laser range finder used in monitoring of fire field experiments. 2.1.4 Radiometers Radiometers can provide the spectral distribution of the energy received by the sensor in the visible and infrared spectra. This sensor has been traditionally used on satellites such as the AVHRR (Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer) of the NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) satellites or the ATSR (AlongTrack Scanning Radiometer) of the ERS-2 (Earth Remote Sensing) satellites. Radiometers can be used for several fire fighting activities. In pre-fire they can estimate moisture content, vegetation cover and, can perform fire detection. They can be used in fire monitoring and measurement. In post-fire activities they can be applied for the burned area mapping. 2.1.5 Gimbals Gimbals are gyro-stabilized platforms that can isolate motion and vibrations of aerial means. Figure 4 shows two photos of gimbals mounted on one helicopter. They can be applied for fire detection, fire monitoring and estimation of burned areas.

J. R. MARTINEZ-DE DIOS AND A. OLLERO. International Symposium on Forest Fires.

Figure 4: Photos of gimbals mounted on one helicopter. 2.1.6 Image stabilization techniques based on image processing The use of gimbals in fire detection and applications has constraints in terms of costs, which is still considerably high, and weight. Moreover, gimbals often have residual small vibrations. We have developed an image stabilization software tool that uses digital image processing to stabilize in real time sequences of vibrated images [Merino and Ollero, 2002]. Consider Imi(x,y) and Imi+1(x,y) are two consecutive images in a sequence of images subject to vibrations. The aim of image motion compensation is to estimate the movement between Imi(x,y) and Imi+1(x,y), to model the motion between them and to compensate the motion by transforming Imi+1(x,y), obtaining Im*i+1(x,y), in such a way that there is no apparent motion between Imi(x,y) and Im*i+1(x,y). Figure 5 illustrates the performance of the image stabilization method. Figure 5a shows three consecutive aerial images with vibrations. Figure 5b shows the resulting images after image stabilization (the first image was considered reference).

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b) Figure 5: Application of image stabilization in three consecutive aerial images: a) original vibrated images, b) resulting images after stabilization. 2.2 Communication systems for forest fire fighting Different alternatives can be used for the transmission of voice and data in forest fire applications. The first one use fixed radiolinks capable of transmitting considerable amounts of information between two fixed points. Two mobile communication

J. R. MARTINEZ-DE DIOS AND A. OLLERO. International Symposium on Forest Fires.

alternatives can be used: mobile digital terrestrial communications and satellite communications. Several mobile digital terrestrial communication technologies are in commercial state including GSM (capable of transmitting voice and data at a maximum rate of 9.6 kbps) and GPRS (21.4 kbps). The new UMTS 3G technology (Universal Mobile Telephone Service) offers up to 2 mbps of data and voice. The main disadvantage of mobile digital terrestrial communications is the constraints in coverage in forest areas and constrains in mountainous areas. With respect to satellite communication technologies, several companies offer services for the transmission of voice and data. For instance, GlobalSat offers communication services in limited areas, and Inmarsat offers global coverage. 3. FIRE DETECTION SATELLITES AND MONITORING SYSTEMS BASED ON

3.1 Introduction Several satellites have been used for fire applications such as: NOAA, ERS-2, Landsat, SPOT and GMS. They have heterogeneous spatial resolutions from 1100 m per pixel of NOAA up to 10 m of SPOT satellites. The visitation period is also rather heterogeneous from 12 hours of NOAA satellites to 16 days for Landsat. The main advantages of fire detection and monitoring systems based on satellites are their very high coverage and the low cost per area. The main disadvantages are the high visitation period, which involves high detection delay and slow actualization in fire monitoring, low spatial resolution and high rate of false alarms in heterogeneous and populated areas. Satellite-based systems have been implemented in many countries including USA, Canada, Finland and Russia. The general state of development of the technology is prototype and still not very validated. However, in some countries these systems are part of the operational fire fighting. 3.2 FUEGO program FUEGO program includes projects FUEGO I and FUEGO II. The main goals are to detect and monitor forest fires [Tourn I. F. et al., 2000]. The FUEGO system considers a satellite constellation of twelve satellites located in three circular orbits at 700 km. altitude and with four cameras on board each satellite operating in the MIR, TIR, VIS and NIR channels of the spectrum. Figure 6 shows a simplified scheme of FUEGO system. The objective is to provide continuous day and night service achieving an average fire detection time of 15 minutes over the pre-defined areas of surveillance (around 30 Mha in Europe), which can be daily updated upon user request. The pbjective of FUEGO is to detect fire-alarms in geo-location (UTM) co-ordinates. It will also provide data on fire intensity, fire-alarm confidence, land use, slope, estimated wind, coding of the alarms according to fire status (active, extinguished), etc. These data will be automatically fed of fire propagation simulators, providing reliable fire evolution predictions thanks to the frequent update of inputs to the simulator.

J. R. MARTINEZ-DE DIOS AND A. OLLERO. International Symposium on Forest Fires.

The objectives of the FUEGO system are: Fire detection delay: 15 min. (average value), Minimum detectable fire: 50 m2 (average value), Geo-location accuracy: 315 m. (instant), 152 m. (after processing, 4 min.), Temporal resolution or re-observation time: 25 min., Maximum False alarm rate: 5%, Monitoring temporal resolution: 25-90 min. (according to resolution), Coverage: 30 Mha (Europe) + 30 Mha (rest of the world), Service: 24 hours, 365 days.

Figure 6: Scheme of the FUEGO System. 3.3 Forest Fire Alert System This project involves the close co-operation of Finnish companies and the European Space Agency (ESA) with the objective of merging and processing the data from different satellite data together with standard fire alerts into an integrated operational environment. The satellite configuration of the Forest Fire Alert system is shown in Figure 7. High-resolution picture transmission (HRPT) data from the NOAA satellites, NOAA12, NOAA-14 and NOAA-15, are received at the acquisition station located at the Finnish Meteorological Institute. Data from ERS-2/ATSR are down-linked and processed at Troms Satellite Station and then collected via ftp through the ESA ATSR near real time (NRT) service. AVHRR scenes, after navigation refinement, are rectified to a map co-ordinate system and then checked for the presence of hot spots. ATSR data processing is limited to the fire detection processing because the data provided by the ATSR NRT service are already calibrated and geolocated into 512 km. by 512 km. GBT products (GBT is a gridded brightness temperature/reflectance product). For detecting hot spots, scene pixels are looked for in the mid infrared 3.7 m. wavelength channel data. Near infrared (AVHRR wavelength 0.91 m and ATSR wavelength 1.6 m.) data together with thermal infrared data (11 m.) are used to screen false alarms due to various reflection phenomena from clouds. The known imaging geometry is used to eliminate false alarms from water or other highly reflective surfaces. Heat-emitting industrial sites are screened out, based on their known locations. For each detected fire, a fire report is sent to the regional dispatching centre in whose

J. R. MARTINEZ-DE DIOS AND A. OLLERO. International Symposium on Forest Fires.

territory the fire was detected. The report included the co-ordinates and detection time and the location of the fire indicated on a map.

Figure 7: Scheme of the Forest Fire Alert System. 3.4 Global Forest Fire Watch System The objective is early warning, monitoring, and assessment of wildfires using current earth-observing technologies and local expert knowledge. The creation of such a system relies on the existence of a high-quality vegetation map, real-time low-cost satellite images, close working relationships with local sources of up-to-date weather information and expertise, and a local requirement for fire-related services and products. Active fires can be detected by their thermal or mid-infrared signature during the day or night or by the light from the fires at night. The sensors must also have frequent over flights and the data from the over flights must be available in near real-time. Two sensors that meet the criteria are the AVHRR sensor, which has a thermal sensor and daily over flights, and the Defence Meteorological Satellite Programs Optical Line scan System (OLS) sensor, which has daily over flights and operationally collects visible images during its night time pass. Data from the OLS sensor need to be adjusted to account for the locations of alternative sources of light, such as city lights or gas fires in oil fields. Band 3 of AVHRR, in combination with bands 4 and 5, has been shown to be effective for detecting wildfires. Significant agricultural fires were detected with OLS images. An inspection of a composite of the AVHRR bands produced by NOAA shows both the extent of the smoke and haze from the fire and many of the actual fire locations. Fire monitoring measures and describes the growth of known fires; three characteristics of interest are the growth of the fire, extent of the smoke plume, and mapping of the fire scar. Monitoring the movement and dispersion of fires is considered as a variant of fire detection, where the focus is the analysis of changing fire patterns. As in fire detection, thermal and night time visible images are effective for mapping changing fire patterns. Monitoring the extent of the smoke plume requires analysis of visible and near-infrared 8

J. R. MARTINEZ-DE DIOS AND A. OLLERO. International Symposium on Forest Fires.

wavelengths. Tracking the smoke plume allows the impact of fires on neigh boring human populations to be estimated. Radar can be used to monitor the extent of fire scars through moderate smoke and haze. 3.5 Operational use of satellites in Finland This system can detect usually fires over 2-3 hectares and the system sends automatically the alarm including the location information less than 30 minutes from the satellite observation to the closest emergency response centre by fax. Table 1 shows the result of Satellite Monitoring from year 2000, when there were numerous fires. This automatic satellite monitoring system is organised by Ministry of Interior. It has been in operation use since 1993. The satellite system is appropriate for Finnish conditions.
Forest fires Peat fire Prescribed burning Field / Straw fire House burning Other False alerts Total Carelia 5 Estonia 5 5 3 1 1 6 1 1 16 Finland 6 2 23 1 2 2 1 37 Latvia 6 1 4 11 1 19 Norway Sweden 2 18 1 12 6 39 Total 24 7 45 7 2 27 9 121

Table 1: Classification of fires detected by satellite detection system in 2004. 3.6 Conclusions for satellite-based systems Satellite-based systems have been used in many different applications in fire detection and monitoring of forest fires. These systems are successfully applied in uniform and low populated areas such as Finland. Their often low spatial and temporal resolutions constrain the operation in purely detection and monitoring applications in many regions with intensive human activities such as the Mediterranean basin. However, these systems can be applied for other fire-fighting related aspects such as the identification of fire-alert situations. 4. FIRE DETECTION AND MONITORING SYSTEMS BASED ON AERIAL MEANS 4.1 Introduction The main advantages of these systems are the medium coverage: 2500 km2/h. by each airplane and the average cost. The main disadvantage is the medium detection delay and the lack of automatic systems. Two general types of systems are automatic systems and manual systems (air patrolling). The state of the technology in automatic system is mainly prototype and manual systems (air patrolling) are currently applied in many countries. Next sections describe one automatic system: Firefly system. The application of air patrolling in Finland will be also described. 4.2 Firefly system The US Forest Service is the largest operational user and developer of airborne thermal infrared remote sensing systems for wildfire detection and mapping. At the National Interagency Fire Centre, a dual-band thermal infrared system called Firefly uses 9

J. R. MARTINEZ-DE DIOS AND A. OLLERO. International Symposium on Forest Fires.

advanced signal processing for fire mapping and detection. Locations of fires can be geo-referenced with the Global Positioning System (GPS), and then transmitted to the ground within minutes. Another system called the Fire Mouse Trap uses forwardlooking infrared and GPS mounted on a helicopter for locating hot spots and mapping perimeters of fires and areas of interest in a near-real-time manner for prompt action. Other applications of remote sensing and related technology in fire behaviour and effects research ongoing at the Rocky Mountain Research Station and Pacific Southwest Research Station include assessing wildfire severity, analysing post-fire succession in ecosystems, estimating the rate of spread of wildfires, and assessing forest fire potential. Resource data acquired using airborne video technology is used to satisfy many resource information requirements in the Forest Service. Video image capture and processing techniques, geo-referenced with the Global Positioning System (GPS) and integrated into GIS databases, provide the capability to quickly and cost-effectively update databases. These systems are especially useful in difficult-to-photograph locations such as south-eastern Alaska on the Tongass National Forest, where video imagery is used to help map forest resources. The Forest Health Protection staff, the Southern Research Station and the Remote Sensing Application Centre have demonstrated a wide variety of applications for airborne video systems in the Forest Service such as forest pest damage surveys, wetlands assessments, forest inventory, law enforcement, resource loss assessment following catastrophic events and search and rescue operations. 4.3 Air patrolling in Finland The main forest fire detection system in Finland is based on air patrolling. Since the 1970s air patrolling has been quite an important forest fire monitoring method in Finland. The provincial governments are responsible for organising air patrolling according to instructions by the Ministry of the Interior. Today there are altogether 26 air patrolling routes in Finland. (see air patrolling routes for 2004 in Figure 8) Air patrolling is carried out mainly by voluntary Air Clubs using 2 or 4 seats small aircraft's. Air patrolling will normally start, when the Regional Fire Danger Index is 4 or more (index scale is 1.0 6.0 in Finland). Some statistic and results of air patrolling. Last years in Finland there has been in average: 965 detection flights/year. detection of 124 forest fires per year. detection of 748 other smoke detection per year. guiding Fire units to the fire location in forest fires 97 times per year. Most of the provincial authorities see that air patrolling is very effective and appropriate Forest Fire detection system in Finland. Only one province reported that the organising air patrolling is not so necessary in Southern part of Finland, because there is so much other air traffic and most of the forest fires will be reported early enough by civilians in this region. Ministry of the Interior holds the opinion that air patrolling has an effective prevention effect for forest fire management and the use of outdoor fires, among civilian. Most of the detected smoke observations made by Air Patrolling are forbidden burnings. Air patrolling is also available to give good guiding to the Fire units for fire locations.

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J. R. MARTINEZ-DE DIOS AND A. OLLERO. International Symposium on Forest Fires.

Figure 8: Air Patrolling routes in Finland in 2004. 4.4 New systems based on Unmanned Aerial Vehicles A recent line of research is the development of new platforms based on Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) for forest-fire applications. The University of Seville (Spain) are developing a helicopter-type UAV for forest fire detection, monitoring and measuring. Aerial robotic vehicles can be used to overcome the limitations of ground robotic vehicles to access to the appropriate locations for surveillance and monitoring. The use of a fleet of robotic aerial vehicles improves the coverage and the reliability of the mission, when comparing with the application of a single UAV. One of the main objectives of the COMETS project (http://www.comets-uavs.org) is to design and implement a system for cooperative activities using heterogeneous UAVs. The main current application of COMETS project is detection and monitoring of forest fire. UAVbased systems have several advantages with respect the traditional manned systems such as is the cost and a reduction in the risk (fire fighting is a dangerous activity with many casualties every year). The UAVs in COMETS are complementary platforms. Thus, currently, both helicopters and airships have been integrated. Helicopters are suited to agile target tracking and inspection and monitoring tasks. On the other hand, airships, having much less manoeuvrability, can be used to provide global views or to act as communications relay. The COMETS UAVs are also heterogeneous in terms of onboard processing and sensorial capabilities. Then, some UAVs have infrared and visual video cameras while another has a still high resolution camera and a specialized fire sensor. Figure 9 shows the equipment on-board one helicopter.

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J. R. MARTINEZ-DE DIOS AND A. OLLERO. International Symposium on Forest Fires.

Figure 9: Equipment on-board helicopter-type Unmanned Aerial Vehicles. 4.5 Conclusions for aerial-based systems One of the main advantages of these systems is their high coverage. The main disadvantages are low spatial and temporal resolution. The state of the technology is non-automatic systems in most cases. Non-automatic air patrolling is used in many countries including Mediterranean countries such as France, Spain, Portugal, Algeria and Croatia. We do not know of any automatic systems currently in service in operational conditions. 5. FIRE DETECTION AND MONITORING SYSTEMS BASED ON GROUND STATIONS 5.1 Introduction This Section describes some ground systems for forest fire detection and monitoring. 5.2 BOSQUE system The Bosque System has been developed and patented by IZAR-FABA (Spain). This system comprises a series of remote Observation Stations which survey a designated area by means of infrared cameras. Automatic heat source detection is registered by a Central Control Unit, linked via radio with each Observation Station. The Central Control Unit is manned by only one person. An infrared camera on each Observation Station is complemented with a powerful Zoom TV camera. The whole unit is mounted to allow rotation (pan) and vertical movement (tilt). The unit can be programmed to automatically cover the area under surveillance by means of repetitive sweeps. The infrared image and system status are sent to the Central Control Unit via communications network. When the signal is received, the image is digitally processed. Triggers and alarms in the case of fire appear on the TV monitor on the main Control Console. Operational instructions for each Observation Station are controlled from the Control Console by radio. The main characteristic of this process is the real time, taking less than one minute for whole process in such a way that the surveillance and early Fire-Detection System BOSQUE, allows fire-fighting to begin when the blaze is still in its first stages. The main functions of the BOSQUE system are:

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J. R. MARTINEZ-DE DIOS AND A. OLLERO. International Symposium on Forest Fires.

Automatic surveillance by means of repetitive sweeps, Forest-fire automatic detection, Automatic fire location (UTM coordinates), Monitoring of forest fire and fighting works, Fire-Extinction confirmation, The main characteristics of the BOSQUE system are the following: Capable of detection: 1m2 from 10 Km., Surveillance and automatic detection by infrared and visible cameras, Area coverage: 30.000 Ha. per Observation Station, One person in Control Console (up to eight Observation stations), Stand alone Observation Station, Video recording. Deterrent against arson, Easy installation on existing conventional observation towers, Central command post to supervise fire-fighting activities, In the Spanish region of Andalusia (Southern Spain) there are 6 operating BOSQUE systems with a total of 17 observatories installed in areas of high environmental interest such as Natural Parks. There are also operating BOSQUE Systems in other Spanish regions such as Galicia and Catalua. Some of these systems have been operating for more than 10 years. 5.3 BSDS BSDS System has been developed by TELETRON (Italy). BSDS is a telecommunication and computer based system for automatic forest fires detection and monitoring, consisting of a remote station and an operator terminal. The BSDS remote station takes infrared images and process theses images to detect heat points. The images could be filtered to eliminate permanent heat points. If a heat point is detected an alarm signal is sent to an operator. The operator can control the camera in order confirm the alarm. The camera is equipped with a zoom. On the operator terminal a 3D model of the terrain is displayed to facility exacted fire localisation. Optionally, it is possible to show other Geographical Information. The system consists of a remote station equipped with an infrared and colour camera, image processing and communication system linked with the operator terminal and an operator terminal: equipped with visualisation software.

Figure 10: Photos of BSDS.

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5.4 ARTIS-FIRE The ARTIS FIRE, automatic detection of forest fire system has been developed by T2M (France) and validated by CEREN (France). ARTIS FIRE consists of a complete set of video cameras and one or more processing units (see Figure 11) located on highest available viewpoints, so to obtain the widest scope. The system autonomously provides smoke detection and information transmission to one of the more supervision stations. The central control room (CCR) has a permanent connection with sensors network that covers the supervised zone. When fire detection occurs, the unit transmits an alarm and fire images to the control station to obtain quick visualisation of the location of a growing blaze. The precise location of the fire is indicated on a map. The CCR ensures a fast and efficient information access to intervention means. Besides, it indicates the precise location of the fire and the local weather conditions. ARTIS FIRE uses dynamic processing of digital images. The principle is based on detection of smoke pillars or plumes originating from a fire. Using analysis of successive images, the system analyses temporal and spatial evolution of specific groups of pixels. Using this technique, a fire (even a hidden fire) can be detected within 360 in a distance of 500 m. to 10 km. The system is operating day and night with the same sensor and the time between the lighting of a fire and the detection has been less than 2 minutes. The main characteristics of the ARTIS-FIRE system are the following: Detection rate at 10 km. > 95 %, False alarm rate < 10%, Local maintenance interval < 3 months, Detection + confirmation + transmission < 2 min, ARTIS FIRE system has been implemented on 50000 Ha in the south of France for different applications as environmental protection and sub-urban forest fire surveillance.

Figure 11: ARTIS-FIRE system overview.

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5.5 False Alarm Reduction System At the University of Seville (Spain) we have developed a new intelligent system that increases the reliability of fire detection systems in forest areas [Arrue et al., 2000]. It combines computer vision, neural networks and rule based systems to reduce the number of false alarms. The inputs of the system are the information provided by the visual camera, the infrared camera, meteorological sensors and a database, which includes geographical information. All these data are merged together with user knowledge to generate a fire index for each fire detection alarm. The fire index is a value of the attention required of that alarm by the system operator. If the value is lower than a certain threshold value, the alarm can be considered as false alarm. If it is higher that a certain value it is considered as a forest fire. The system makes use of advanced image processing techniques and artificial intelligence methods such as neural networks and fuzzy logic. Figure 12 depicts the scheme of the False Alarm Reduction System (FARS). The False Alarm Reduction System also includes software tools to be used in the validation of alarms.

Figure 12: Scheme of the False Alarm Reduction System. A version of FARS has been installed permanently in the Forest Protection Center (CEDEFO) of the Reserve Park of Los Alcornocales (Alcal de los Gazules, Cdiz, Spain) during August and September of 1998. This natural space is considered the largest oak wood area in Spain. This protected area suffered a severe forest-fire in August of 1997, which devastated 938 hectares. During the evaluation period, the prototype has worked autonomously. A large number of tests, that took place during different day hours and different solar illumination distributed during the day, were performed in May, June, July and August of 1998. The experiments include real forest fires as well as false alarms. The total number of experiments with false alarms was 517. Of these cases, 507 were rejected and 10 were classified as forest fires. Thus, the False Alarm Rate is 1.93%. The total number of experiments carried out with fires was 15

J. R. MARTINEZ-DE DIOS AND A. OLLERO. International Symposium on Forest Fires.

51. All of them were detected as fires. Thus, the Fire Detection Rate was 100%. 5.6 Fire Monitoring and Measurement Tool At the University of Seville (Spain) we have developed a new system for forest fire monitoring and measuring basing on the analysis of infrared and visual images [Ollero et al., 2001]. The main objective of the system is to automatically measure in real time and in georeferenced coordinates some geometrical characteristics of the forest fire such as the position of the fire front, the rate of spread, flames height and the fire base width. As secondary objective the system computes in real time a 3D model of the fire, which can be visualized from virtual views or displayed on a GIS. The system processes automatically synchronized sequences of images from infrared and visual cameras deployed on static positions on the ground or mobile vehicles such as helicopters. Figure 13 depicts the deployment of the cameras in one experiment. The system captures the images in real time and applies image processing and sensor fusion algorithms to obtain georeferenced measures in real time. The images from distant cameras are transmitted to the processing station by image radiolink transmitters. The system has been developed in the framework of INFLAME and SPREAD projects funded by the European Commission. The system has been tested in controlled field fire experiments performed from 1998 to 2004, [Viegas et al., 2002]. Its accuracy and robust performance obtained in these tests validated the interest of the system for operational fire fighting apart from the analysis of fire spread.

Figure 13: Scheme of the camera deployment for fire monitoring and measurement. Figure 14 shows the main screen of the Experimental Fire Monitoring Tool. This experiment is being monitored with two visual cameras (one in frontal position and one with lateral position, both with respect to the main position of the fire front) and one frontal infrared image. In the main window it is possible to observe the three images. The main screen also displays a virtual view of the fire evolution and some windows that show the georeferenced fire measures obtained in real time. Figure 15 shows some results of the evolution of the fire front obtained with the Experimental Fire Monitoring Tool. Each line represents the position of the fire front every 25 seconds.

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Figure 14: Screen of the Experimental Fire Monitoring Tool.

Fire front shape G751 each 25 seconds 201 480 475 470 976 465 460 455 450 445 440 145 150 155 160 165 170 X 175 180 185 190 195 Y 76 401 226 326 176 951 451

Figure 15: Evolution of the fire front every 25 seconds obtained with the Experimental Fire Monitoring Tool. 5.7 Conclusions for systems on terrain stations Different systems based on ground stations can be classified attending to their main sensor: infrared cameras, visual cameras or both. The main advantages of these systems are the very low detection delay and very high spatial resolution. The main disadvantages are the relatively high false alarm rate and the errors in fire localization. Several automatic and non-automatic systems are in commercial stage and some of them are currently in operation in Europe and USA. 6. CONCLUSIONS The complexity of the forest fire problem requires the use of heterogeneous technologies in the different forest fire activities. The development of new sensors with unprecedented sensibility, accuracy and resolution capabilities and new communication

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J. R. MARTINEZ-DE DIOS AND A. OLLERO. International Symposium on Forest Fires.

systems has motivated the development of new systems and tools for forest fire detection and monitoring. Currently, automatic fire detection and monitoring are technically and technologically feasible. The main improvement of the technology is mainly being at three different ways: higher sensorial performance (in terms of sensibility, accuracy and resolution capabilities), increase of the performance and capabilities of the communication services and increase in the integration of the systems in telematic systems. It is also noticeable the improvement of the human-system interface in such a way that the systems have easier use for personnel. It has also been observed a slow reduction in the costs of the systems. One of the main points still to be improved is cost of these systems, which is still high in many cases. The performance of some systems can be improved. Particularly, false alarm rate in automatic detection systems is still an active research topic. There is still lack of integration with other fire fighting systems. The increase of complexity of the systems requires continuous personnel training. REFERENCES [Arrue et al., 2000] Arrue, B. C., Ollero, A. and Martinez-de Dios, J.R, 2000, An Intelligent System for False Alarm Reduction in Infrared Forest-Fire Detection, IEEE Intelligent Systems, Vol. 15, no. 3, pp. 64-73. [Den Breejen et al., 1998] Den Breejen E., M. Roos, K. Schutte, J.S. De Vries and H. Winkel, 1998, Infrared Measurements of Energy Release and Flame Temperatures of Forest Fires. Proc. 3rd Int. Conf. on Forest Fire Research. Luso, Portugal. pp. 517-532. [Hudson, 1969] Hudson R.D., 1969, Infrared System Engineering, John Wiley & Sons. [Merino and Ollero, 2002] Merino L. and A. Ollero, 2002, "Computer vision techniques for fire monitoring using aerial images", International Conference on Industrial Electronics, Control and Instrumentation - IECON 2002. Sevilla (SPAIN). ISBN: 0 7803 7475 4 [Ollero et al., 2001] A. Ollero, J.R. Martinez-de Dios, B.C. Arrue, L. Merino and F. Gmez (2001). "A Perception System for Forest Fire Monitoring and Measurement". 3rd International Conference on Field and Service Robotics, FSR 2001. Helsinki, Finland. June 11-13, 2001. A. Halme, R. Chatila and E. Prassler (editors). Finnish Society of Automation, 2001, pp 135-140. [Tourn et al., 2000] Tourn I. F., Gonzalo J. & Yage P, 2000, The Fuego System, Research Special Session 2000. pp. 118-122. [Viegas et al., 2002] D.X. Viegas, M.G. Cruz, L.M. Ribeiro, A.J. Silva, A. Ollero, B. Arrue, R. Dios, F. Gmez-Rodrguez, L. Merino, A.I. Miranda y P. Santos (2002). Forest Fire Research & Wildland Fire Safety. IV International Congress on Forest Fire Research - IV ICFFR 2002. Luso, Coimbra (Portugal), 18-23 Noviembre 2002.

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