The invention relates to a method for early detection of a forest fire using an end device having a sensor unit, the sensor unit performing signal detection in a first signal detection mode and in a second signal detection mode, and to a forest fire early detection system for performing the method.

Disclosed is a method and system for determining an area of fire and a method and system for estimating progression of a fire in the determined area of fire. The method for determining the area of fire comprises receiving sensor data from a plurality of sensor modules and determining the area of fire based on relative locations of the sensor modules with respect to each other. The method for estimating progression of a fire comprises receiving first and second sensor data from at least one sensor module and devising a plurality of fire scenarios for each of the sensor data. The method further comprises determining a likelihood of each of the plurality of fire scenarios to identify a potential combination of fire scenarios to estimate the progression of the fire.

A method and system to receive, one or more first images, one or more second images, one or more ambient weather related information, and one or more land related information, wherein the one or more land related information comprise vegetation features, terra firma topography, elevation, slope and aspect, of one or more regions of interest, of a geographical region; to map automatically, one or more risk areas of the one or more regions of interest; to recognize automatically, one or more smoke or fire related signals; and to predict computationally, existence of a fire causing smoke, a fire, a fire-growth and spread.

A system includes a processing device and memory device storing instructions that result in accessing a first dataset including aerial imagery data and infrared data, accessing a second dataset including property boundary data, and identifying property boundaries associated with a geographic area. A plurality of models is applied to the datasets to identify and compute information of interest. Based on the first dataset and constrained by the property boundaries, a building detection model can be applied to identify a building, and a vegetation detection model can be applied to identify one or more areas of vegetation. An estimated distance can be determined between each of the areas of vegetation and the building as separation data, which can be compared to a defensible space guideline to determine a defensible space adherence score. A wildfire risk map can be generated, including the defensible space adherence score associated with the geographic area.

The invention relates to a forest fire early detection system comprising a mesh gateway network having a network server, a plurality of first gateways, a second gateway and a plurality of end devices, wherein the first gateway communicates directly with other gateways and end devices of the mesh gateway network only and the second gateway communicates with the network server, and a corresponding method for performing forest fire early detection.

The invention relates to the extension of a Low Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN), especially a Long Range Wide Area Network (LoRaWAN), specification for wireless battery powered systems in a regional, national or even global network to provide a solution, with which LoRaWAN-compatible end devices also benefit from range extension, which is achieved by dividing the gateways into several front-end gateways communicating with each other and with each other via a wireless multi-hop communication network and at least one border gateway.

Embers created by fires, particularly fires in environments such as grassland, bushland, and forests, can lead to the loss of property and animal and human lives. In addition to the loss of property and lives, fires caused by embers lead to an increase in greenhouse gasses, an increase in the risk associated with an ember attack and/or a fire, and a reduced ability to effectively fight an ember attack and/or a fire. The concept bush/wildfire should be understood to include forest fires, grassland fires, and the like. The present disclosure relates to an ember detector device, a bush/wild fire detection and threat management system, and methods of reducing greenhouse gasses, reducing the risk associated with an ember attack and/or a fire, and enhancing an ability to effectively fight an ember attack and/or a fire.

The present invention solves a very complex problem that is a major obstacles for electric utility industry's power lines vegetation encroachment management business. Vegetation contacts to the high voltage overhead power lines cause flash-over and/or blackout which results in hazardous situations and economic losses. Power line vegetation management is a very cost intensive business process which is essential to ensure safe, reliable and affordable electric energy supply by the electric utilities, transmission and generation owners. This routine electric utility vegetation management related work is mandated and overseen by applicable federal, state or local regulatory agencies. The state-of-the-art vegetation management process involves labor and cost intensive foot-patrol, vehicular patrol, air patrol and airborne LiDAR patrol of power lines. These methods are often inefficient, unreliable, risky and costly. The present invention provides a method and system for automated vegetation growth, condition and status monitoring near high voltage utility electric lines using stationary sensors, wireless or wired communications and computation technologies and proprietary algorithms. The method and system of the current invention monitors the power line infrastructures remotely and advises the vegetation maintenance crews on mitigating actions without requiring human interventions, thus saving cost and reducing risks to the humans and environment. A comprehensive vegetation encroachment condition report with vegetation proximity advisory (VPA) and vegetation resolution advisory (VRA) is automatically generated and transmitted to the operational staff by the system for each electric line span at certain time interval or continuously without boots-on-the-ground manual asset inspection and/or air patrol using aircraft. This current invention is an automated, safer and low-cost solution to an electric utility industry's essential reliability and compliance related business process.

A system includes a processing device and memory device storing instructions that result in accessing a first dataset including aerial imagery data and infrared data, accessing a second dataset including property boundary data, and identifying property boundaries associated with a geographic area. A plurality of models is applied to the datasets to identify and compute information of interest. Based on the first dataset and constrained by the property boundaries, a building detection model can be applied to identify a building, and a vegetation detection model can be applied to identify one or more areas of vegetation. An estimated distance can be determined between each of the areas of vegetation and the building as separation data, which can be compared to a defensible space guideline to determine a defensible space adherence score. A wildfire risk map can be generated, including the defensible space adherence score associated with the geographic area.

Embers created by fires, particularly fires in environments such as grassland, bushland, and forests, can lead to the loss of property and animal and human lives. In addition to the loss of property and lives, fires caused by embers lead to an increase in greenhouse gasses, an increase in the risk associated with an ember attack and/or a fire, and a reduced ability to effectively fight an ember attack and/or a fire. The concept bush/wildfire should be understood to include forest fires, grassland fires, and the like. The present disclosure relates to an ember detector device, a bush/wild fire detection and threat management system, and methods of reducing greenhouse gasses, reducing the risk associated with an ember attack and/or a fire, and enhancing an ability to effectively fight an ember attack and/or a fire.