Publication date: 28 de July, 2020

Project Clean Forest leverages artificial intelligence and augmented reality in fire prevention

The project “Clean Forest – Automatic and Participatory Surveillance of Forest Fire Protection Zones” led by NOVA Laboratory for Computer Science and Informatics (NOVA LINCS), will apply innovative artificial intelligence and augmented reality techniques to minimize the risk and impact of forest fires. The main goal is to continuously monitor the cleaning and maintenance of fire fuel management bands, as legally required, in order to protect human lives, forests, environment and material goods.

By leveraging the data resulting from surveying features of temporal patterns in vegetation indices gathered from satellite information, through artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms, the system to be developed within Clean Forest will automatically and regularly assess the cleanliness status of fire fuel management strips, as well as the evolution of fuel material from other areas to be monitored (recently burned, deforested or planted) which end up working as containment areas against the spread of fires. The remote sensing information will be combined and validated with information collected on the ground. Additionally, a smartphone application will also be integrated, exploring augmented reality both for the collection of information in-situ and for offline presentation, to facilitate and support the work and contribution of municipalities, authorities and citizens in general.

The Clean Forest project is coordinated by Carlos Viegas Damásio, researcher of the Knowledge-Based Systems group at NOVA Laboratory for Computer Science and Informatics (NOVA LINCS). The project was selected for funding in the Call for R&D Projects to Prevent and Fight Forest Fires promoted by the Science and Technology Foundation, in which 19 projects were approved among 81 evaluated applications

The call targets projects that develop scientific research and innovation, allowing the production of new knowledge and strengthening technical skills in different key areas for the prevention and fighting of forest fires, in a multidisciplinary perspective, and incorporating activities of dissemination and application of the results achieved.

The project team also includes NOVA LINCS researchers Fernando Birra and Teresa Romão (Multimodal Systems), João Leitão (Computer Systems), João Moura Pires and Susana Nascimento (Knowledge-Based Systems) in interdisciplinary collaboration in the context of the of the Laboratory thematic line “Computing for Sustainability”.

The Clean Forest project has the participation of INESC ID, Instituto Português do Mar e da Atmosfera, I. P. (IPMA), Municipality of Mação and Navigator Forest Portugal S.A.