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xPrize Wildfire – $11M Prize Competition

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Re: xPrize Wildfire – $11M Prize Competition

#41

Post by csh0 »

Anyone interested in linking up to register as a team for either track?

“Track A: Space-Based Wildfire Detection and Intelligence

In the Space-Based Wildfire Detection & Intelligence track, teams will have one minute to accurately detect all fires across a landscape larger than entire states or countries, and 10 minutes to precisely characterize and report data with the least false positives to two ground stations.

Track B: Autonomous Wildfire Response

In the Autonomous Wildfire Response track, teams have 10 minutes to autonomously detect and suppress a high-risk fire in a 1,000 km2, environmentally challenging area, leaving any decoy fires untouched.”

I think these would be a fun problems work on. You can reach me at: Fire(AT)cynical.io

I don’t work in this space normally, currently I work as an SRE, but I am motivated. :)

Re: xPrize Wildfire – $11M Prize Competition

#42

Post by davidbanham »

oatmeal1 wrote: post #39
exabrial wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The majority of the logging industry is a good thing for the planet. When you log sustainably, you take fixated carbon, turn it into a product that can be used, then allow the area to regrow, fixated more carbon as a building product. The vast majority of the time, it's a win-win. The negatives are supplying things like cheap paper to the post office for marketing departments to across to spam people using US Postal…

> The majority of the logging industry is a good thing for the planet. Absolutely not. The amount of carbon sequestered is inconsequential relative to the habitat destruction, habitat fragmentation, species going extinct, etc.

For clear felling in a rainforest, sure. For clear felling in a timber plantation, probably? For selective logging outside particularly sensitive areas, nah.

Re: xPrize Wildfire – $11M Prize Competition

#43

Post by soperj »

danielvf wrote: post #31
soperj wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I honestly would be very surprised if they didn't make more CO2 logging and turning that tree into a building product than they sequester. Postal spam is likely even more damaging.

Trees are roughly 50% carbon by weight. Each pound of carbon represents 3.67 pounds of cleaned carbon dioxide. Each pound of lumber represents 1.8 pounds of carbon dioxide our of the air. It looks like both logging trucks and flatbed timber trucks can carry around 24 tons of lumber, which would be 43 tones of carbon dioxide. Sawmills are efficient, and would make a negligible contribution to total carbon. Transportat…

You haven't sequestered anything by getting it to the sawmill, that's only one portion of the journey. Also Using the Environmental Protection Agency’s Greenhouse Gas Equivalency Calculator, one ton of carbon is equivalent to 413 gallons of gasoline, so I think your math is off.

Re: xPrize Wildfire – $11M Prize Competition

#44

Post by hellotomyrars »

mrandish wrote: post #7

On one hand this effort sounds like a good way to generate some interesting concepts. On the other hand, as a long-time resident of a rural, wildfire-prone area, it's also important to educate the public and politicians that there is a large body of proven land management best practices that can already significantly improve prevention, control and mitigation. While we can always do better, we often aren't sufficient…

The access issue is huge and crosses over in to other issues (Inaccessible public land). I didn’t do wildland firefighting when I was a volunteer firefighter but the other people around talked about it a lot. There were areas that had to pay more to be served by neighboring agencies.

Re: xPrize Wildfire – $11M Prize Competition

#45

Post by uoaei »

stonogo wrote: post #13
uoaei wrote: post #5

It seems like the prize is not evaluated based on being able to predict wildfire behavior, but specifically on technologies for quashing wildfires as they start. The former makes a lot of sense, while the latter assumes an outdated perspective on wildland management. Who does this serve?

It serves the people whose houses are burned and the even larger population who has to live in smoke-polluted air for days or weeks at a time. The prize targets extreme wildfire events, as it says explicitly. Not one of the prizes relates to quashing anything, it's all detection and tracking.

Then someone should probably inform their copywriter that "End Destructive Wildfires" is not an accurate framing of the goals. More like "End Community Destruction By Wildfires"

Re: xPrize Wildfire – $11M Prize Competition

#47

Post by mackid »

mrandish wrote: post #26
westurner wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wildfire suppression: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wildfire_suppression#Tactics History of wildfire suppression in the United States: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_wildfire_suppressio... Controlled burn: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Controlled_burn > A controlled or prescribed burn, also known as hazard reduction burning, [1] backfire, swailing, or a burn-off, [2] is a fire set intentionally for purposes…

That's a good list of useful links. From my experience as a home owner in a high-risk area, I'd add some of the things which can make a big difference are often surprisingly simple. In addition to managing your own land properly, make sure you have a large enough water tank to support firefighters in protecting your land. We got a well tank five times bigger than our typical usage needs. Another key thing is to put y…

Great comments and advice. My neighborhood burned in the #GlassFire [0]. While our property was severely damaged, our home survived, due to many of the hardening techniques you mentioned and great work by CalFire. We had evacuated the night before and were staying in a local hotel watching the flames advance on our house via our security cameras. (Redundant net connections and a generator kept everything online). As our deck started to burn I called 911 to report it, figuring nothing would happen. About 20 minutes later a fireman walked into the frame of the camera and 2 minutes later the deck was out and the house was saved. I was cheering like I won the Super Bowl. So I really appreciate all the hardening I did, on-site water and CalFire.

When we rebuilt the exterior, I installed a set of sprinklers that ring the house and cover the roof/deck. They are not designed to fight the fire, instead I can activate them before a fire arrives to get things good and wet. This perimeter reduces the available fuels, reduces the heat load on the structure and reduces the risk of ember cast. It was a fun project with an ESP controller to sequence the valves and provide remote control.

Over the last few years, the Alert Wildfire Camera system, now over 700 cameras, has been a valuable resource. [1] Early detection of the fire, before it grows to extreme size has made a big difference. In the North Bay of California last year, this early detection and CalFire having nearby Air Attack resources on standby kept many small fires from becoming large ones in this area.

Another great resource is the Watch Duty app. [2] This is a non-profit, volunteer, but extremely professional service. They started in Northern California and are rapidly expanding. It is the go-to resource for Wildfire related information in the area.

Lastly, if anyone is looking at the X prize for satellite detection, I’d spend some time researching MODIS/VIIRS data products from NASA. [3]. A good starting point in some of the challenges of wildfire detection from space.

[0]. Fire tornado outside my window. https://youtu.be/1tZjWqh3-EU

[1]. https://www.alertwildfire.org/

[2]. https://www.watchduty.org/

[3]. https://firms.modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov/

Re: xPrize Wildfire – $11M Prize Competition

#48

Post by pedalpete »

One of Australia's mining magnates has been supporting a similar initiative through his non-profit for the last few years with the goal of having any forest fire extinguished (probably managed) within an hour [1].

He's tipped into the XPrize as well [2].

[1]https://www.minderoo.org/fire-and-flood-resilience/fire-shie... [2] https://www.afr.com/world/north-america/andrew-forrest-chips...

Re: xPrize Wildfire – $11M Prize Competition

#49

Post by westurner »

mackid wrote: post #47
mrandish wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a good list of useful links. From my experience as a home owner in a high-risk area, I'd add some of the things which can make a big difference are often surprisingly simple. In addition to managing your own land properly, make sure you have a large enough water tank to support firefighters in protecting your land. We got a well tank five times bigger than our typical usage needs. Another key thing is to put y…

Great comments and advice. My neighborhood burned in the #GlassFire [0]. While our property was severely damaged, our home survived, due to many of the hardening techniques you mentioned and great work by CalFire. We had evacuated the night before and were staying in a local hotel watching the flames advance on our house via our security cameras. (Redundant net connections and a generator kept everything online). As…

> a set of sprinklers that ring the house and cover the roof/deck. They are not designed to fight the fire, instead I can activate them before a fire arrives to get things good and wet. This perimeter reduces the available fuels, reduces the heat load on the structure and reduces the risk of ember cast. It was a fun project with an ESP controller to sequence the valves and provide remote control.

I searched a bit and couldn't find any smart home integrations that automatically hopefully turn the lawn and garden sprinklers on when a fire alarm goes off.

Are there any good reasons to not have that be a standard default feature if both smoke detectors and sprinklers are connected to a smart home system?

Re: xPrize Wildfire – $11M Prize Competition

#50

Post by eep_social »

westurner wrote: post #49
mackid wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Great comments and advice. My neighborhood burned in the #GlassFire [0]. While our property was severely damaged, our home survived, due to many of the hardening techniques you mentioned and great work by CalFire. We had evacuated the night before and were staying in a local hotel watching the flames advance on our house via our security cameras. (Redundant net connections and a generator kept everything online). As…

> a set of sprinklers that ring the house and cover the roof/deck. They are not designed to fight the fire, instead I can activate them before a fire arrives to get things good and wet. This perimeter reduces the available fuels, reduces the heat load on the structure and reduces the risk of ember cast. It was a fun project with an ESP controller to sequence the valves and provide remote control. I searched a bit and…

Coming from an operations perspective, you want to look at the downstream consequences of automation which depend on the details of the installed system. E.g. from this thread: automation might drain water from the 5x oversized well tank before firefighters arrive, seems to me that whether or not that is preferable depends on the details.
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