The worst drought in the last 47 years caused record fires in the Pantanal region, in the country's Midwest, in July. There were 1,684 fire hotspots recorded, the highest number for the month since measurements began by the National Institute for Space Research (Inpe) in 1998.
Wildfires – which are spreading at high speed due to the dry weather and wind in the Pantanal – occur in hard-to-reach regions, which hinders the work of firefighting teams.
To help prevent fires, define conservation policies, and monitor potential environmental crimes such as illegal burning and deforestation, it is essential to obtain detailed information about a forest. The mission, however, is practically unfeasible, considering the difficulties of accessing these locations and the long time required to complete it.
As a way to solve the problem, researchers from the São Carlos campus of the University of São Paulo (USP) and the University of Pennsylvania, in the USA, developed a drone that can fly autonomously over areas with high tree density.
The equipment features a laser sensor that fires thousands of beams of light per second and, upon encountering trees, manages to calculate the distance of each trunk and branch—avoiding collisions. The pilot simply needs to delimit the area to be flown over. From there, the drone can map it on its own.
Tests conducted in a pine forest in the State of New Jersey, in the United States, showed positive results.
“In addition to having the possibility of conducting a forest inventory over a much larger coverage area, with the use of the drone this process becomes much faster, safer, and more precise,” says Guilherme Nardari, one of the authors of the study.
The equipment can map a 400,000-square-meter forest in just 30 minutes. For comparison, if the same work were carried out by a team of forest engineers, for example, that time would jump to 12 and a half days – and that is assuming it was carried out 24 hours a day.
When applied in Brazil, the technology would allow, according to the researchers, to prevent the expansion of fires, since drones could spot them in real time.
“If you use traditional satellite methods, by the time you realize it, it's already too late and the damage has been done,” Steven Chen, from the University of Pennsylvania, told TV Globo.
In addition, the three-dimensional maps generated by the equipment help identify risk areas and can assist teams in fighting the flames.
In the case of illegal deforestation, it would be possible to alert environmental authorities if any region shows suspicious changes over time. “This issue is very relevant, especially given the current scenario we are experiencing, of total disregard for the Amazon,” states Roseli Romero, a USP professor in São Carlos.
According to the researchers, the technology will need to undergo some adjustments before it reaches Brazil—since it was tested in the United States. The estimated cost for each autonomous drone like this one is R$ 60,000.
SOURCE:
FIRE
