An Integrated Bushfire Information System (IBIS)

Many readers will be familiar with recent wildfires in California, in Greece, and most recently the massively destructive bushfires in February 2009 in Victoria, Australia, where my family lives. On so-called 'Black Saturday', 7 February 2009, 46C temperatures and 100 kph-plus winds fanned wildfires that, according to evidence at the subsequent Royal Commission of inquiry, released energy equivalent to many thousands of atomic bombs, killing 173 people and destroying over 2,200 homes. 

The recommendations below are drawn from my submission to the Royal Commission.  The submission gives the background and a critique of the existing internet publication channels for bushfire information, which are very inadequate. 

The submission argues that the cost of extreme bushfire events, and the increasing probability of such events given the reality of climate change, necessitates a step change in the level of investment in information technology and specifically geo-Informatics to help manage the risk. Specifically:

1. The aim should be the construction of an integrated bushfires information system (IBIS) that would be accessible and used by the public and authorities in managing their bushfire risk. To the fullest extent possible, members of the public should be able to access the same information as is made available to the authorities.
   
2. The aim should be for a portal or Internet page which is as timely, comprehensive and granular as humanly possible, and certainly far more timely, comprehensive and granular than the information available on Black Saturday.
   
3. The information displayed on the portal should be as close to real time as possible. It should be clear which agency is responsible for each item of information. To the extent possible, in order to maximise the freshness of the information provided, automated sources of information should be relied on, including the bureau of meteorology's databases, the outputs of satellite systems such as GeoScience Australia's Sentinel system for displaying satellite information, etc.
   
4.  The basic medium or matrix for the presentation of information should be the interactive map. The technology could be as simple as that used by Google maps, but preferably would be purpose-built. Wherever possible, information should be as accurate as possible given modern GPS units’ capabilities. To this end, all firefighting units should be equipped with GPS technology and all reports should be automatically geo-tagged wherever possible.
   
5. The portal should be capable of displaying integrated information from all relevant agencies (State and federal), but particularly from firefighters, roads authorities, police, the meteorology bureau, and sources of satellite and aerial surveillance imagery.
   
6. The meteorology bureau or other appropriate expert organisations should be tasked with the automated production of real-time critical fire path projection mapping. This would show the projected path of the fire front of critical fires given known variables such as fire location, windspeed, temperature, precipitation and the like.
   
7. Residents and possibly other members of the public should be able to post sightings or reports of fire in an unverified layer of the map. In order to minimise the risk of vandalism of the site by scurrilous reports, suitable safeguards such as logging IP addresses or perhaps even establishing a system of pre-screened volunteer fire reporters should be established.
   
8. The investment must be both in terms of equipment and expertise. The authorities must commit to sourcing highly expert specialists in what is a cutting edge field, recognising there may be a need to pay over the odds for such expertise. All relevant staff should receive training in the use of information technology and geo-Informatics in the reporting of fire and in the communication of relevant details of the public.