7th Workshop on Forest Fire Management - EARSeL, European ...

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III - FIRE DETECTION AND FIRE MONITORING
1.1 - Features and operation
The system is based on digital cameras in black and white, with CCD sensor.
The use of black and white permits, compared with a colour camera, to
have, for the same sensor, a resolution 4 times higher compared with a
colour camera. The image picked by the camera is processed in real time in
order to detect the presence of the fire and only in this case is sent with
reporting to the operational center. This is crucial because the operator is
not alerted continuously, but should only validate the alarm, alerting, as
various protocols, the various fire brigades. This mode allows you to intervene
timely, since the detection of smoking occurs even when there was
still development of flame. In this way, with a simple and efficient management,
it is possible to intervene when the fire is still small. The time
that passes from smoke generation and sending the alarm to central is
between 4 and 8 minutes. Another important feature is that Firewatch can
work even at night, thanks to optical part that light the picture; the performances
are comparable with those of day: the ability of detection is at
a distance of 10 km, a cloud of smoke 10 x 10 m. Firewatch can precisely
detect the smoke due to fire wood, as it is characterized by a combustion
process that emits smoke with certain characteristics, allowing its detection
for the particular brightness and contrast. Finally, the scope of the system:
a single camera works very well with a radius of 15 km, that can cover
an area of approximately 70,000 ha.
2 - Forest fires in Italy
The existence of a fire problem in Italy is confirmed by data of 2007, the
year in which 226’000 hectares had burned, of which forest 116’000. In our
country, which has a limited extension and where the percentage considered
forest, in accordance with current standards, is 34.7% the fire becomes
a source of damages, with incalculable consequences.
Currently, the trend of growth of the forest in Italy is positive. It thus
becomes important to careful management of forests in particularly in its
defence against fire, not only in forest terms, but the general commitment
to the environment. In 2007, to August 31 have been released into the
atmosphere 7 million and a half of tonnes of CO2 due to forest fires, which
is the amount of CO2 that would have been produced by the consumption
of 14 GWh, considering the Italian energy mix. 2007 was a year particularly
burdensome, with area burned in a proportion higher than the number of
fires in other years because the surface was that of 1993, while the number
of fires is lower.