Analysis and Exploitation of Landforms for Improved Optimisation of Camera-Based Wildfire Detection Systems

Andries M Heyns,Michael Kosch,Warren Du Plessis,Gavin Hough,Kevin M Curtin

doi:10.1007/s10694-021-01120-2

Abstract

Tower-mounted camera-based wildfire detection systems provide an effective means of early forest fire detection. Historically, tower sites have been identified by foresters and locals with intimate knowledge of the terrain and without the aid of computational optimisation tools. When moving into vast new territories and without the aid of local knowledge, this process becomes cumbersome and daunting. In such instances, the optimisation of final site layouts may be streamlined if a suitable strategy is employed to limit the candidate sites to landforms which offer superior system visibility. A framework for the exploitation of landforms for these purposes is proposed. The landform classifications at 165 existing tower sites from wildfire detection systems in South Africa, Canada and the USA are analysed using the geomorphon technique, and it is noted that towers are located at or near certain landform types. A metaheuristic and integer linear programming approach is then employed to search for optimal tower sites in a large area currently monitored by the ForestWatch wildfire detection system, and these sites are then classified according to landforms. The results support the observations made for the existing towers in terms of noteworthy landforms, and the optimisation process is repeated by limiting the candidate sites to selected landforms. This leads to solutions with improved system coverage, achieved within reduced computation times. The presented framework may be replicated for use in similar applications, such as site-selection for military equipment, cellular transmitters, and weather radar.

Highlights

Camera-based wildfire detection system (CWDSs) are comprised of a number of specialised tower-mounted cameras that monitor the surrounding environment with the aim of providing early wildfire detection [1, 2]
The landform classifications at 165 existing tower sites from wildfire detection systems in South Africa, Canada and the USA are analysed using the geomorphon technique, and it is noted that towers are located at or near certain landform types
A preliminary analysis categorised 165 existing towers from three ForestWatch CWDSs according to geomorphon landform types—the first time such a classification has been performed for actual sites of facilities with visibility-based objectives

Summary

Introduction

Camera-based wildfire detection system (CWDSs) are comprised of a number of specialised tower-mounted cameras that monitor the surrounding environment with the aim of providing early wildfire detection [1, 2]. The candidate and final sites at which to place the towers are identified by foresters and locals with intimate knowledge of the terrain and without significant use of computational tools. Modelling the earth’s surface elevation and related geographical/environmental information can be achieved by employing uniformly spaced, satellite-measured points across the terrain surface—called raster data—and is a standard approach used in the literature for solving facility location problems [7, 19,20,21]. The non-contiguous blue area is an example of terrain identified as suitable for the placement of towers, typically limited to criteria such as allowable geographical and administrative/municipal boundaries and suitable terrain characteristics (e.g. slope)—candidate site selection criteria and processes are described in more detail in Sect. The sites that may be considered for facility placement (the blue dots in the figure) collectively form the PZ

Objectives

Results

Discussion

Conclusion