From 2007 the heathland forest is placed under automatic video surveillance in order to detect as early as possible fires and forest fire outbreaks. The automatic video detection system for fires and fire starts was designed and implemented by the company. PARATRONIC. Integrated into the PRODALIS system, this automatic video-surveillance system of fire starts, allows, thanks to an early and automatic detection by video-surveillance of the heathland forest, the intervention of the necessary means in a short time. No intervention is triggered following an automatic detection of the video surveillance without human confirmation thanks to an analysis of the video images transmitted in real time. These video images also allow the monitoring of the evolution of the fire or the start of fires even before the first units arrive on site.
The Landes forest placed under video surveillance The 18 watchtowers of the Landes massif are now equipped with 54 video surveillance cameras. This is a first in the fight against fire in France. July 2004. One of the 39 lookouts of the Landes Departmental Fire and Rescue Service (SDIS) is found dead at the foot of his watchtower, obviously struck by lightning. "For safety reasons, we decided that no more lookouts would climb the towers," explains Colonel Olivier Bourdil, director of the SDIS 40. But how to monitor the forest and detect fire outbreaks without calling on the sharp eye of the rescuers? The solution adopted was the installation of fifty or so surveillance cameras at the top of the towers. Since the beginning of the summer season, the system called Prodalis is operational in the 18 watchtowers managed by the SDIS 40. The 660,000 hectares of maritime pine trees in the Landes massif are thus placed under video surveillance. "The main advantage of our system is that it is intelligent," says Philippe Arnoult, head of the SDIS 40's IT department, "It works on the principle of image comparison. "On each of the towers, 40 metres above the ground, two cameras with a range of 20 kilometres constantly scan the forest over a 180° field. In less than two minutes - the time it takes for them to rotate - they take 18 photos. When they return to their starting point, they take another 18 pictures. Using complex algorithms, a computer analyses the images and automatically detects any plumes of smoke that may appear on the horizon. All this data is then sent to the security headquarters in Mont-de-Marsan. They are transmitted via a Wimax-type digital wireless transmission network. A sort of long-distance Wi-Fi in a way. In other words, the data passes from tower to tower in successive jumps of about 20 kilometres. The advantage of this type of link is that it offers a much higher data rate (from 50 to 300 Mbit/s) thanADSL. Accuracy at 300 metres If an anomaly is detected, a circle surrounds the smoke on the picture displayed on the operator's control screen. Are we looking at a fire, a cloud of dust from an agricultural machine or factory smoke? To remove any doubt, the firefighter can then activate a third camera placed at the top of the tower. Equipped with a powerful zoom lens, it transmits images in real time, not photos. He can also operate a camera on another tower to get a different view. "Once a fire has been detected, it has to be located as quickly as possible," explains Colonel Bourdil. An operation that is carried out by triangulation. Explanation: a tower gives an initial azimuth. A second one allows to establish a second one. All that remains is to plot these data on a map. The start of the fire is located at the intersection of the two lines. " The accuracy of the system is very good: the fire is located to within 300 or 350 metres," says Olivier Bourdil. The officer coordinating the rescue effort can even see the progress of the fire in real time on a giant screen. "He has a very precise view of the situation as if he were in one of the watchtowers with a pair of binoculars," notes Philippe Arnoult. Since its installation, four fires have been spotted. For the time being, this very costly system - nearly one million euros - is in the test phase. The first assessment will be made at the end of the summer. By Jean-Michel Bénard News.fr. http://www.news.fr/actualite/societe/0,3800002050,39371732,00.htm Published on: 27 July 2007 Copyright © 2007 CNET Networks France, All rights reserved.
About ADELIE
Without mentioning human losses, the cost of a forest fire essentially depends on three components:
The cost of material destruction (buildings, power or telecommunications lines, road or rail infrastructure, etc.),
The cost of certain medium and long-term impacts of fires on our environment,
The cost of the fight itself.
The ADELIE automatic video forest fire detection system detects the presence of smoke in the natural environment thanks to a unique principle of image capture and automatic processing. This automatic video forest fire detection system allows, from one or more high points and up to the horizon, permanently and over 360 degrees, the surveillance, detection and localisation of fires and fire starts.
the early and systematic detection of fires and forest fire starts, the precise location of forest fire starts,
the instantaneous and automatic transmission of information allowing professionals to qualify the start of a forest fire,
to monitor fires in real time at the fire control centre and/or the C.O.D.I.S.
Reduces burned areas and reduces the costs associated with monitoring and fighting fires and forest fires.
We monitor where and when we want, day and night, all year round or only in times of risk, all or part of the territory.
We limit the risks, especially the human risks, more man isolated in nature or on watchtowers, more man present on the same high points as the GSM antennas.
We save a lot of time, a 360° surveillance every 2 minutes, a permanently vigilant system, an instantaneous alert, an extremely precise location , an instantaneous and real time visualisation of the disaster even before the first vehicle has been sent.
We learn from the past:
the images from the automatic video detection system of forest fires allow, a posteriori, to study the start of the forest fire and the progress of the fight against the fire, the database fed automatically at each event allows to make statistics necessary for the continuous improvement of the prevention and the fight against fires and start of forest fires, the follow-up of the forest fire on a big screen at the central post during the whole intervention (of the different units, canadairs....) allows to draw the lessons from each action....
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