Research & Technology
ALERTCalifornia is a public safety program working to understand wildfires and other natural hazards and determine short and long-term impacts on people and the environment to inform management decisions. ALERTCalifornia collects actionable, real-time data to inform public safety and help California prepare for, respond to, and recover from natural disasters.
With the frequency and severity of wildfires and other natural hazards increasing California, remote sensing has become essential to develop effective and time-critical plans for disaster prevention, protection, mitigation, and response. New high resolution lidar and imagery data is also instrumental in the study of fuels and fuel regrowth models.
Through the employment of advanced data mapping techniques, ALERTCalifornia is providing critical data to inform disaster response in real time to support emergency managers in their herculean efforts in the face of climate-driven natural disasters.
MONITORING FROM THE GROUND
NATURAL HAZARD MONITORING CAMERAS
ALERTCalifornia’s high-definition cameras are able to pan, tilt, zoom and perform 360-degree sweeps approximately every two minutes with 12 high-definition frames per sweep. The cameras also provide 24-hour monitoring with near-infrared night vision capabilities. Each can view as far as 60 miles on a clear day, and 120 miles on a clear night. Using the cameras and associated tools, firefighters and first responders can rapidly confirm fire ignition, quickly scale fire resources, support evacuations through enhanced situational awareness and monitor fires through containment. The cameras are also critical tools that support emergency managers during atmospheric rivers, storms, blizzards, landslides, and other natural hazards.
INFRARED CAMERA TECHNOLOGY – THE NEXT GENERATION
This advanced camera technology allows emergency managers to see fire through smoke and haze, enabling better real-time resource allocation and enhancing safety. Infrared thermal imaging technology used to create an infrared image of a scene without having to “scan” the scene with a moving sensor, an advancement over older models. This technology is now being expanded and incorporated into ALERTCalifornia’s network.
ALERTCalifornia’s team is working to make the invisible visible and the inaccessible accessible through the newest technology, hyperspectral cameras. These cameras provide more information than can be seen by the human eye, including hydration concentration, absorption spectrums, indicators of smoldering fires, and air quality information.
Hyperspectral cameras are in the experimental phase and acquire a huge amount of data in different spectrums. The final image is comprised of many individual components captured at different wavelengths that are combined to create a final huge data-filled image measuring 10 gigabytes per acquisition.
ALERTCalifornia is working with firefighters and emergency managers to make these data and images accessible, relevant, and useful during natural disasters.
Currently, ALERTCalifornia is funding a testbed in Southern California that utilizes a prototype cameras that explore what information can be acquired at scale that help with early fire detection and tracking. By working with collaborators at UC Irvine, the team hopes to roll out this next generation natural hazard monitoring tool soon.
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI)
ALERTCalifornia collaborated with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE) and industry partner Digital Path to create a fire detection AI tool with the goal of improving firefighting capabilities and response times. The value of this public-private partnership is the development of AI to aid firefighters, mitigate watchstander fatigue, reduce false positives, and confirm fire incidents in the incipient phase.
When the AI spots a potential fire on ALERTCalifornia’s network of cameras, the system alerts firefighters and provides a percentage of certainty and estimated location for the incident. If the incident is vetted and confirmed by trained watchstanders, firefighters respond quickly to extinguish the fire at the incipient phase. The camera network is also used to provide actionable real-time data to quickly scale fire resources, help evacuations through enhanced situational awareness, and monitor fire behavior.
Early detection and rapid response allow firefighters to combat fires before they grow. The AI tool became available to all 21 CAL FIRE 911 Dispatch Centers in September 2023. This tool is especially effective in spotting anomalies in remote locations and is proven effective at night, even alerting firefighters before 911 calls.
ESRI ArcGIS LIVING ATLAST MAP LAYERS
ALERTCalifornia’s ever-growing network of camera sensors is available as a ready-to-use map layer that provides instant access to the program’s live feeds across California. The ArcGIS Living Atlas of the World is an evolving collection of global geographic content from Esri. The ALERTCalifornia layer shows each camera’s location, real-time viewshed, and the camera’s current image. Users can add the ALERTCalifornia’s network of cameras into their own maps, apps, and dashboards. The cameras provide continuous real-time imagery updated every 15 seconds.
Emergency managers and first responders can use the new Living Atlas ALERTCalifornia layer directly in their ArcGIS applications to get real-time situational awareness. This enables users to access critical data when they need it most, helping them monitor and respond to natural disasters more effectively. The layer can be used with a variety of ArcGIS applications and maps, ensuring that the data is not only available but also actionable.
SENSING FROM THE AIR
AVIATION TECHNOLOGY
ALERTCalifornia is working with the CAL FIRE Aviation Program to incorporate the newest technology for scanning terrain. These new fuselage ports and surveillance pods have been approved by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), and can be used for mapping, LiDAR sensors, drop-hatch, and other missions.
LARGE SCALE LiDAR AND MULTISPECTRAL IMAGING
LiDAR, which stands for “Light Detection and Ranging,” is a type of data collection that uses light in the form of a pulsed laser to measure distances to the Earth. Airplanes and drones equipped with scanners flying transects generate equally precise, three-dimensional information about scanned surfaces. These data are collected at the state-sized scale, capturing current topography as well as infrastructure and vegetation. LiDAR remote sensing allows researchers and emergency managers to examine California’s environments (both natural and manmade) with greater accuracy. ALERTCalifornia combines LiDAR scans with other data to provide essential information California needs to prepare for, respond to, and recover from natural hazards like wildfires and other natural disasters.
High-resolution LiDAR is also instrumental in mapping a landscape’s terrain and accessibility. Measurements include the steepness and angles of slopes, as well as the directional—north to south and east to west—orientations of landscape features. These precise measurements directly inform natural hazard response and recovery. These data also become key inputs for fire simulation modeling and help improve models over time.
CHANGE DETECTION AND LANDSLIDE ANALYSIS
Cascading disasters after natural hazards like wildfires or atmospheric rivers can be a great risk after events. Debris flows, like landslides and mudslides are particularly dangerous in California. By conducting recurring surveys and temporal comparisons, ALERTCalifornia can quantify changes in the landscape to better monitor change and mitigate associated risks.
ALERTCalifornia has worked hard to scan ⅔ of California’s most fire-prone areas and plan to complete the last section of the state soon. These high resolution LiDAR data provide a baseline that is essential for understanding the impacts of a natural disaster. By comparing post-disaster scans to the baseline data, ALERCalifornia can compile essential information for emergency managers and policymakers. ALERTCalifornia also works with emergency managers to place cameras in high-risk areas, like debris basins below fire scars, for continued monitoring and rapid response.
TERAIN MODELING
Using new advanced scanning technologies, ALERTCalifornia’s teams scan forests and “see” beyond what is visible to the human eye. Multispectral imaging captures image data within specific wavelengths, even from frequencies beyond the visible light range. Once these data are processed, ALERTCalifornia scientists characterize the different vegetation types in diverse habitats. These scans are highly accurate and, when combined with other data, enable the team to identify specific types of trees and other vegetation. Researchers can also use these multispectral data to understand the impacts of fire and climate change to habitats over time. For example, the team is scanning rivers to estimate their depth and the temperatures of flowing or standing water, and assessing the health of forests over time to determine fire risk.
