Charlotte Varcoe
ARTIFICIAL intelligence will be used to help monitor potential bushfires within the Green Triangle region in a first for the nation.
A brand new camera will be installed on a number of fire towers across the Green Triangle region with Pano AI being announced as the initiative’s successful tenderer.
It is being implemented alongside the Green Triangle Forest Industries Hub (GTFIH) with $1m of the funds targeting the new technology.
The new and innovative bushfire detection and monitoring system will be Australia’s first fully integrated bushfire detection platform using satellite technology, ultra high definition panoramic cameras and artificial intelligence.
It comes following trials conducted at The Bluff, Penola North and Mount Burr towers.
Green Triangle Fire Alliance chair Mike Lawson said he hoped the technology would reduce response time and the impact of wildfires in the region.
“We look forward to working with the other growers in the region and making sure we can get on top of what looks to be a significantly worse season than what we have had for several years,” Mr Lawson said.
“Currently the system is a manned system with towers set up across the Green Triangle and the biggest difference is that we will have 24/7 visuals over the landscape and will be able to pick up fires outside of manned towers.”
He said the technology would have a “significant impact” because the sooner responders could get to the plantation, the more likely the significant area could be saved.
“If we can cut that [response time] back and get resources out to those plantations quicker, then we are going to save a lot of valuable plantations,” Mr Lawson said.
“We are currently keeping a visual on the season this year, the Bureau of Meteorology is yet to declare El Nino although it is looking likely and the fuel load has increased significantly over the last couple of years because we have had relatively benign summers.”
He said the cameras would not result in job losses with the manned towers maintained but the industry would “move forward with cameras to supplement those manned operations”.
Pano AI chief commercial officer Arvind Satyam said the motivation for the technology came about after the Australian Black Summer bushfires in 2019 and 2020.
“As we look at fires, one of the determinants is being able to allocate resources quickly and the way we do that is leveraging technology,” Mr Satyam said.
“We really see this as groundbreaking in Australia and there have been a number of trials and we see this as the largest commercial rollout of cameras with artificial intelligence in satellite technology.
“The idea of the cameras being for monitoring have been around for a while and is a combination of cameras we use before we apply artificial intelligence through that.”
Minister for Forestry Clare Scriven labelled the initiative as a “really important step forward” in terms of improving fire detection.
“It is really doing an important job in terms of improving our fire detection capability and of course protecting not only things such as our important forestry assets but also the communities around us that support them,” Ms Scriven said.
Installation work on the cutting-edge system is expected to commence shortly and be in place in time for the 2023-24 fire season.
