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CLOUDEO Partner Reference Case: Fire Monitoring

Efficient project delivery using the example of fire monitoring
RSS GmbH develops individual solutions in the areas of environmental monitoring, resource management and digital cartography and therefore integrates the use of aerial and satellite images and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) for national and international projects.

Read more about CLOUDEO Partner Reference Case: Fire Monitoring.

1.DESCRIPTION

As long as fire is under our control, it serves a lot of useful purposes, but, once it goes out of our control, it can create a lot of destruction. Wildfires in the vegetated areas of Australia, Southeast Asia, Southern Africa, the tundra, forested areas of the United States and Canada have an effect on climate change, increasing the amount of carbon released into the atmosphere and inhibiting vegetation growth.

In other areas of the world manmade fires like the slash-and-burn agriculture provokes fires and promotes the growth of flammable brush, creating a cycle that encourages more burning.

Fires generate ash, destroy organic nutrients, cause an increase in water runoff, and produce large amounts of CO2. To monitor these fires, identify their causes and define effective measures it is important to know exactly when and where the fires are occurring, which areas are affected and the intensity of fires and related CO2 emissions.

2. APPROACH

Remote Sensing Solutions GmbH (RSS) is a company known for environmental monitoring, resource management and digital cartography. RSS customers like governments and non-governmental organizations (NGO) require detailed information about the areas affected, the timing and the intensity of the fires and estimates of resulting CO2 emissions.

Remote sensing by satellites is the key technology that delivers basic data on fire and burned area monitoring in order to determine the source and the progress of fires. Of special importance is an in- time assessment of the burned area for providing a detailed proof of the localization of the fire and the affected land cover and land uses.

In order to fulfill this task, RSS has to quickly acquire recent data, and has to invest in processing infrastructure and according software licences.

To simplify this task for service providers CloudEO offers Geo-IT as a Service. It comprises fast data access of multiple vendors like Airbus Defence & Space, DMCii, DEIMOS, Intermap and many others, professional geo Software of Hexagon Geospatial Services, Trimble and Exelis Visual Information Solutions, and scalable processing power within a private cloud in a certified hosting environment. Latest technology is available, when needed and costs only occur when the service is used.

In addition, CloudEO offers the possibility to evaluate data in detail prior to buying. RSS used the CloudEO workbench to evaluate the benefits of fire monitoring for their customers. Through the private ftp on CloudEO they uploaded their RapidEye data and their analysis application which is based on ERDAS IMAGINE, IDL and eCognition. CloudEO and its partners provided the Software and the processing infrastructure. Within one hour RSS was able to use the CloudEO workbench without changing established workflows and technologies.

The data was analyzed using the significant processing power of the CloudEO workbench and a shapefile was generated that indicate the fire affected areas.

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