Innovations for the future; learning from the past
November 2 - 4, 2010 Hinton Training Centre, Hinton, Alberta, Canada
Presented at the 3rd International Wildland Fire Detection Workshop
The 2010 Wildland Fire Detection Workshop was the third in a series of workshops on fire detection organized by FPInnovations. The workshops take place at the Hinton Training Centre with the goal to bring Canadian and international wildland fire detection expertise together in one place; encouraging communications among participants; and providing ideas & innovations to create solutions for the issues affecting wildfire detection programs today, on every scale, and well into the future.
Innovations for the future; learning from the past
November 2 - 4, 2010 Hinton Training Centre, Hinton, Alberta, Canada
The 2010 Wildland Fire Detection Workshop was the third in a series of workshops on fire detection organized by FPInnovations. The workshops take place at the Hinton Training Centre with the goal to bring Canadian and international wildland fire detection expertise together in one place; encouraging communications among participants; and providing ideas & innovations to create solutions for the issues affecting wildfire detection programs today, on every scale, and well into the future.
In March of 2011 FPInnovations staff traveled to Rainbow Lake to create research plots in a prescribed burn unit. Work was conducted using a Gyrotrac GT-18 rotary mulcher, creating three ‘grid-mulched’ plots along with several ‘control’ lines. The grid-mulched areas are to evaluate their effectiveness as fuel reduction treatments, and the control lines were established to monitor their effect on fire behaviour. Work was completed over a three day period.
Presented at the 2nd International Wildland Fire Detection Workshop
The 2006 Wildland Fire Detection Workshop was the second in a series of workshops on fire detection organized by FPInnovations. The workshops take place at the Hinton Training Centre with the goal to bring Canadian and international wildland fire detection expertise together in one place; encouraging communications among participants; and providing ideas & innovations to create solutions for the issues affecting wildfire detection programs today, on every scale, and well into the future.
Event Tacking Systems are marketed as a means to accurately track payload delivery (volumes and delivery points). The question raised in this proposal relates to the accuracy of these tracking systems. How accurate are these devices in terms of payload delivery. What is the error?
Ignition specialists with Alberta Environment and Sustainable Resource Development (ESRD) had identified significant operational and reliability issues with the current system and expressed a pressing need for improvement. The Chair of Alberta’s Ignition Working Group asked FPInnovations Wildfire Operations Research to provide a conceptual design for a new aerial-ignition tracking system that addressed the needs and concerns of the ignition specialists.
This project was completed under contract for Alberta Environment and Sustainable Resource Development. Please contact Jim Thomasson for more details.
One of the latest technological advancements under development is the aerial intelligence-gathering platform. The platform combines geo-referenced images (infrared and colour) with real-time telemetry. Data can be transferred to a fire centre, an incident command post, and hand-held devices. In 2010, FPInnovations conducted an analysis for the British Columbia Wildfire Management Branch to identify the branch’s data collection needs and priorities that might be addressed by this latest technology. This is a directed research project and the results belong to British Columbia Wildfire Management Branch. Please contact Jim Thomasson for details.
The objective of this session was to identify each agency’s operational or managerial issues that need more research. A key point was that research should always have an operational use.