{"id":1603,"date":"2012-11-14T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2012-11-14T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.msdn.microsoft.com\/msr_er\/2012\/11\/14\/fighting-wildfires-with-data\/"},"modified":"2017-04-13T09:58:02","modified_gmt":"2017-04-13T16:58:02","slug":"fighting-wildfires-with-data","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/blog\/fighting-wildfires-with-data\/","title":{"rendered":"Fighting Wildfires with Data"},"content":{"rendered":"

When wildfires strike, all eyes turn to the clouds, hoping for a downpour that will quench the flames. Now, wildfire prevention teams on the Greek island of Lesvos are looking to a different kind of cloud for help, thanks to the VENUS-C Fire application and the computing power of Microsoft Azure (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Fire app determines the daily wildfire risk on Lesvos during the months of May to October, when the annual dry season turns the island\u2019s forests into a tinder box. The application not only alerts fire prevention teams of the risk, it also enables firefighters to design and coordinate an effective response when a wildfire breaks out. As a result, the island\u2019s fire prevention personnel have been better prepared to predict, respond to, and stop fires, preventing potential loss of life and property.<\/p>\n

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The Fire app integrates Bing Maps, Microsoft Silverlight, and Windows Azure in a single system that enables users to see the potential of an emerging fire<\/p><\/div>\n

Developed by the Geography of Natural Disasters Laboratory (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a> at the University of Aegean in Greece, the Fire app is designed to calculate and visualize the risk of wildfire ignition and to simulate fire propagation. The end users are primarily emergency responders, including the fire service, fire departments, and civil protection agencies that address wildfires on the island of Lesvos.<\/p>\n

The app was built with functionality from multiple resources, giving it both technological depth and a visual interface that is accessible to non-technical users. It integrates Bing Maps, Microsoft Silverlight, and Windows Azure in a single system that enables users to see the potential of an emerging fire.<\/p>\n

All of the Fire app\u2019s data is stored in the cloud via Windows Azure. And a lot of data it is, including information on topography, vegetation, weather patterns, and past fire patterns. This is \u201cbig data,\u201d and crunching it requires the computing power of a large cloud infrastructure, such as Windows Azure.<\/p>\n

Professor Kostas Kalabokidis of University of the Aegean calls Windows Azure essential to the app, noting that \u201cthe cloud provides us with the necessary processing power and storage that is required. That means the real end users for the fire department do not need to have any huge processing power or storage capabilities locally.\u201d Indeed, on the end-user side, all that\u2019s needed to access the tool is a regular computer or laptop, an Internet connection, and a web browser that supports Silverlight.<\/p>\n