In Alberta, Canada, wildfire season is off to an early and aggressive start, and only expected to get worse due to the dry conditions. With events like the 2016 Fort McMurray wildfire that devastated much of the area still fresh in people’s minds, and the current fires forcing many people out of their homes, the dangers of wildfires remain a constant source of concern for residents, according to The CBC.
In order to help people better prepare for the potential threats, former firefighter and current leader of the University of Alberta’s Wildfire Analytics research team Jen Beverly has helped to develop a new tool to show communities how vulnerable they might be to these types of fires. Says Beverly of the tool to The CBC, “We’re really focused on trying to provide communities with some strategic information and ideas … trying to give them some insight about where there might be particular vulnerabilities in terms of a fire on the surrounding landscape, having a pathway to move into the community zone.”
The tool, which is still undergoing testing via case studies in various communities through Alberta and British Columbia, uses information about the surrounding areas to evaluate how much highly combustible vegetation is present, and to generate a colour-coded heat map. This map can then be used to identify both sources of risk, and to help determine likely directions the wildfires may move once started, supporting communities in their identification of vulnerabilities, and in determining the best evacuation routes. “It’s all dependent on the data that you can get. So if we have good information about the fuel and the land cover and what it’s composed of, we can do that with a fair degree of certainty — know that here’s a pathway that a fire could travel along,” Beverly told The CBC.
Source:
https://www.cbc.ca/radio/thecurrent/firefighter-tool-communities-plan-wildfires-1.6837318
