RURAL FIRE MANAGEMENT

By: Carolina Vega Artigues, Journalist – Faculty of Engineering UdeC / cvegaa@udec.cl.
Images: Courtesy of the Faculty of Engineering. 
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Different conditions converge every summer for wildfires, which have increased in frequency and severity in recent years. According to CONAF data, in the 2022-2023 season, 428,343 hectares were lost to 6,797 fires throughout the country. Of these, 166 were classified as major fires (IFM, in Spanish), meaning they covered areas equal to or greater than 200 hectares. 

This information mobilized specialists from the University of Concepción’s Faculty of Engineering through the Data and Artificial Intelligence Center to create a sociotechnical rural fire management model, which has been used in CMPC’s Fire Management Center since 2023.

The platform is called Gesfire, and it allows optimizing rural firefighting. This tool includes critical information such as weather conditions, mapping, active outbreaks, projections, and available resources in a single application, allowing operators to make quick and effective decisions. The program also allows organizing background information, such as the type of plantations, forest management, and current worksites. 

“This software allows dispatchers to make decisions without being overwhelmed, showing them information in a dual, graphical, and form-based way. It adapts well to their work, reducing their stress and allowing them to support each other more easily,” explained Marcela Varas Contreras, project leader and director of the Computer Engineering Department.

Technology that saves lives

The work began with an in-depth analysis of the operational flow in fire management, supported by ergonomics specialists, before modeling the processes and proposing an integrated solution. Gesfire thus replaced old systems, allowing operators to visualize, in a single work environment, a series of relevant data distributed on a maximum of three dashboards: the operational dashboard, the work dashboard, and the fire service main dashboard. This helps to determine and dispatch brigades and land and air resources accurately.

This tool, operational since 2021, is a concrete contribution from engineering to emergency management in the country. “Gesfire represents the result of interdisciplinary and collaborative work, where engineering and technology support emergency management. Our priority was to allow operators to make quick decisions and managers to make strategic decisions in an agile, precise, and coordinated way,” explained Marcela Varas. 

The technology was a finalist for the Avonni Awards for Innovation in the Entel Digital Solutions and Services category. It’s not just about controlling the flames: “There is a significant concern with the neighbors of the forest plantations,” said the academic. “There is a higher incidence of wildfires when people pass through the area. So, there are several fronts involved,” she detailed. 

The platform is still in operation and continues to evolve, with new functionalities being developed to improve fire management and prevention.