TASK-DI-09-03B: Implementation of a Fire Warning System at Global Level

Task Description

Area	Disasters
Overarching Task	TASK-DI-09-03: Warning Systems for Disasters
Sub Task	TASK-DI-09-03b: Implementation of a Wildland Fire Warning System at Global Level
Related Communities of Practice	-
Relevant Committees	-

Task Definition

Develop a globally-coordinated warning system for wildland (vegetation) fires, including improved prediction capabilities, analysis tools and response support through sensors, information products and risk assessment models. Related activities will include: (i) Review of existing warning systems; (ii) Assessment to enhance current fire early warning systems; (iii) Development of mechanisms for the implementation of an operational global early warning system. Activities will be coordinated with the UNISDR “Global Wildland Fire Network” and the Global Fire Monitoring Center (GFMC). They will also build upon the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS) – providing fire danger forecasts and analyses of forest fire damages for the pan-European area and GMES projects in the area of emergency response.

Leads

Type	Member or PO	Representing	Contact Name	EmailAddress
Task Lead (PoC)	Canada	GOFC-GOLD Fire IT / Canadian Forest Service	Bill de Groot	bill.degroot@nrcan.gc.ca
Task Lead (PoC)	Germany	GOFC-GOLD Fire IT / Global Fire Monitoring Centre	Johann G. Goldammer	johann.goldammer@fire.uni-freiburg.de
Task Lead	Australia	Centre for Australian Weather and Climate Research	Graham Mills	g.mills@bom.gov.au
Task Lead	European Commission	JRC (EFFIS)	Jesus San Miguel	jesus.san-miguel@jrc.it
Task Lead	United States	NOAA	Heath Hockenberry	heath.hockenberry@noaa.gov
Task Lead	United States	NOAA	Eli Jacks	elliot.jacks@noaa.gov
Task Lead	United States	USDA/Forest Service	Kevin Ryan	kryan@fs.fed.us

Motivation/Background

(Why should this Task or sub-task be implemented? What relevance to society? What is the state of the art?)

Extreme wildland fire disasters are increasingly frequent events around the globe. The increasing severity of fire disasters are a consequence of increased vulnerability of the natural environment and societies The social, economic and environmental costs of these fires are very high, often leaving many thousands of people homeless and displaced, without income due to loss of local livelihood by the fire, and in many cases millions of people affected by negative long-term health impacts caused by fire emissions. The early warning science and technology that currently exists will be implemented to mitigate or prevent wildfire disasters.

Current Status

Outputs

Description	By Date
A proposal for a Global Early Warning System for Wildland Fire was prepared and presented to the UN-ISDR at the 3rd Early Warning Conference (March 2006, Bonn). Numerous presentations on the proposed system have been made at international fora, and several papers on the system have been published in international proceedings. The consortium of international agencies proposing this system are focusing efforts on the search for funding opportunities.	Q4 2009
The Fire Information for Resource Management System (FIRMS) was contributed to the task DI-09-03b. FIRMS provides global MODIS hotspot/fire detections to a wide range of users in easy to use formats, including web mapping services, shape and KML files and a customized fire email alert service. It contributes directly to the ‘response support through sensors and information products’with users in more over a 100 countries, some of whom (particularly those in remote areas) use the system to warn of fires in their area of interest. FIRMS data are also used as inputs to Fire Risk models. (FIRMS is currently run by the University of Maryland in partnership with MODIS Rapid Response, funded by NASA is in the process of being transitioned to an operational system at UN FAO).	Q4 2009

Activities

Description	By Date
July 2009	Q3 2009
GEO Concept Proposal (Type III) on “A sub-Sahara Africa Early Warning System for Wildland Fire Threat and Air Quality Hazard” submitted to GEO User Interface Committee and Capacity Building Committee. Other funding proposals in preparation. Development of a Global Early Warning System for Wildland Fire information website (including definition document) initiated by Lead Agencies of this Task; expected completion by Nov 2009.
June 2009	Q2 2009
Presentation of the Global Early Warning System for Wildland Fire in the frame of a Special Event at the Second Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR).
August 2008	Q3 2008
Presentations on the Global Early Warning System for Wildland Fire were made at: - UN Wildland Fire Advisory Group/Global Wildland Fire Network meeting, 4-6 July 2008, Freiburg, Germany; and - GOFC-GOLD Int’l Workshop on Advances in Operational Weather Systems for Fire Danger Rating, Edmonton, Canada, 14-16 July 2008
December 2007	Q4 2007
Presentations of the Global Wildland Fire Early Warning System at UNOOSA COPUOS STSC 44th Session - 16 February 2007, the 4th International Wildland Fire Conference, Seville, Spain, May 2007 and the GEO Capacity Buildind Workshop in Sevilla, 10-11 September.
Regional consultations in Syria (Expert Consultation Meeting on Wildfire Early Warning and Detection Systems, Lattakia, Syria, 15 – 17 July 2007) and Ukraine (International consultation on “Reducing Risk of Disaster from Catastrophic Wildfires in the Chernobyl Irradiated Forests, 26-27 July 2007, Kiev-Chernobyl, Ukraine).
GEO supported GOFC-GOLD Workshop on the Requirements for a Fire Early Warning System for Africa, in conjunction with the West Africa Regional Network Meeting on Earth Observation and Environmental Change, 12-16 November 2007, University of Ghana (Legon), Accra, Ghana
Task team made contributions to the publication “The Full Picture” and to the Early Achievements Annex 100 First Steps to GEOSS, both presented at the GEO Ministerial Summit of Cape Town 30 November 2007)
December 2006	Q4 2006
The status of December 2006 is reflected by the preparation of the project “Global Early Warning System for Wildland Fire” presented at EWC-III (March 2006). Updates of existing wildland fire early warning systems including scientific, technical and political developments are provided regularly on the GFMC Wildland Fire Early Warning Portal (http://www.fire.uni-freiburg.de/fwf/fwf.htm) and the Global Wildland Fire Monitoring Portal (http://www.fire.uni-freiburg.de/current/globalfire.htm). The envisaged design of the system has been presented to the WMO Commission on Agrometeorology (New Delhi, India, October 2006) and to the 5th International Conference on Forest Fire Research (Figueira da Foz, Portugal, November 2006).

Resources

Description	By Date
Canadian Forest Service, Global Fire Monitoring Center, Australian Centre for Climate and Weather Research, University of Maryland, and NAA/NESDIS: all agencies providing staff to work part-time on the project; providing travel funds to make presentations and seek project funding.

In Planning

Outputs

Description	By Date
A. 2008-2009 Definition document (technical, operational) for a global early warning system for wildland fire	2008 - 2009
B. 2009-2010 Periodical update of the GMFC website and its linkage with GEO Web/clearinghouse	2009 - 2010
C. -2011 Regional and global prototypes of the System pre-operational, including its link to GEO Web/clearinghouse	2010 - 2011
D. 2011-2012 Continue progressive implementation and operations	2011 - 2012
The system will operate as a coordinated network of regional systems using existing remotely-sensed and ground-based data networks, and new forecasting and fire danger risk models to provide improved prediction capabilities, analysis tools, and response support. The system will operate at global to local levels, with rapid information dissemination via dedicated networks. Technology transfer and capacity building programs in system operation and use will be conducted at global, regional, and local levels. Interface coordination will be put in place to ensure that activities of other Social Benefit Areas will benefit from data and products generated within this Task. Activities will be coordinated with the UN-ISDR “Global Wildland Fire Network” coordinated by the Global Fire Monitoring Center (GFMC).

Activities

Description	By Date
A. 2008-2009 Definition document (technical, operational) for a global early warning system for wildland fire	2008 - 2009
B. 2009-2010 Periodical update of the GMFC website and its linkage with GEO Web/clearinghouse	2009 - 2010
C. 2010-2011 Regional and global prototypes of the System pre-operational, including its link to GEO Web/clearinghouse	2010- 2011
D. 2011-2012 Continue progressive implementation and operations	2011 - 2012

Resources

Description	By Date
Canadian Forest Service, Global Fire Monitoring Center, Australian Centre for Climate and Weather Research, University of Maryland, and NAA/NESDIS: all agencies providing staff to work part-time on the project; providing travel funds to make presentations and seek project funding.

Cross-cutting Components

Architecture and Data

1) Please briefly describe any task-related Earth observation resources (data set, system, website/portal) and any related Web Service interfaces that are contributed to GEOSS. State whether these items are or will be registered with the GEOSS Component and Service Registry for access via the GEO Web Portals, and whether any associated standards or other interoperability arrangements will be registered in the Standards and Interoperability Registry.

2) Please also describe what data and information your activity/system needs that you would request to be accessible through the GEOSS Common Infrastructure.

Capacity Building

(capacity building is defined to include the development of capacity related to: (i) Infrastructure and technology transfer (Hardware, Software and other technology required to develop, access and use EO); (ii) Individuals (education and training of individuals to be aware of, access, use and develop EO) and (iii) Institutions – building policies, programs & organizational structures to enhance the value of EO data and products).

1) In accordance with the above definition does this Task have a capacity-building component? If so, please provide a short description of this component including a description of end users.

2) Have any additional CB needs for this Task been identified? Please provide a short description.

Infrastructure and technology transfer – this is essentially in place at a global level, with mixed capacity at regional, national, and sub-national (local) levels (it is country specific); capacity building of this component will be on a country by country basis and dependent on funding.

Individuals – good capacity at global and regional levels; education and training to operationally run the system at a national level will be required for many countries, and can be facilitated by regional experts (GOFC-GOLD regions, Global Wildland Fire Network); it is an important component of this Task.

Institutions – much work needs to be done at the global level in development of international policies and programs to utilize the early warning system; a number of nations are well-established in this area, and will be relied upon to guide policy and program development at all levels; this is another important component of the overall technology transfer of this Task.

A major component of this task is local capacity building in the final end user – fire management agencies. Specifically, this involves technology transfer and training in the practical application of early warning information in daily fire management decision-making. This is something that would happen at all system levels. For instance, at the global level, early warning information can be used for international resource-sharing decisions that are made before disaster fires occur; at the local level, early warning can be used for the most basic decisions involving fire prevention, detection, and suppression activities in advance of critical burning conditions.

Science and Technology

1. Please briefly describe the elements of scientific research or technological development contained in this Task

2. In relation to the S&T component(s) of this Task, please describe gaps, priorities, continuity needs, barriers, scientific expertise and additional resource needs (this information will be used for developing a gaps and needs assessment in Task ST-09-01)

User Engagement

Please briefly describe to what extent end users are engaged in this Task and influence the nature of the outputs produced

End users (sub-national, national, global fire and remote sensing regional networks, UN-ISDR, UNEP, FAO, WHO) are engaged throughout the system development and establishment process. They are included during system design and implementation to ensure data protocols and information transfer are operational and efficient. They are also closely involved in the technology transfer and capacity building activites to ensure the system is self-sustaining and functional at a local level.

Contribution to Outputs and Activities Above

Japan

AFFRIT: Producing Automatic Forest Fire Information Reporting system(AFFIRE) using hotspot obtained from NOAA, Terra and Acqua satellite data in Japan. This warning system will take part in developing regional forest fire warning system and network in Asia.

JAXA: To provide the service of Sentinel Asia hot-spot monitoring and also consider the possibility to provide the information on the early warning by using the soil moisture products

Spain

Instituto Nacional de Investigación y Tecnología Agraria y Alimentaria (INIA): Development of pioneer fire risk index from satellite images in Spain. Could be developed too in Latinamerica, together with INPE.

USA

NOAA's atmospheric research Office - OAR (Oceanic and Atmospheric Research), has been involved with fire weather operations through Heath and Eli's fire weather unit in the NWS. We have also been involved in fire weather research planning and some initial fire scale modeling efforts.

CEOS

NOAA: Develop global fire warning system (geostationary and polar orbiting satellites). Operational implementation of geostationary fire monitoring for GOES, MSG and MTSAT.

Participation

Type	Member or PO	Representing	Contact Name	EmailAddress
Task Lead (PoC)	Canada	GOFC-GOLD Fire IT / Canadian Forest Service	Bill de Groot	bill.degroot@nrcan.gc.ca
Task Lead (PoC)	Germany	GOFC-GOLD Fire IT / Global Fire Monitoring Centre	Johann G. Goldammer	johann.goldammer@fire.uni-freiburg.de
Task Lead	Australia	Centre for Australian Weather and Climate Research	Graham Mills	g.mills@bom.gov.au
Task Lead	European Commission	JRC (EFFIS)	Jesus San Miguel	jesus.san-miguel@jrc.it
Task Lead	United States	NOAA	Heath Hockenberry	heath.hockenberry@noaa.gov
Task Lead	United States	NOAA	Eli Jacks	elliot.jacks@noaa.gov
Task Lead	United States	USDA/Forest Service	Kevin Ryan	kryan@fs.fed.us
Task Contributor	CEOS	NOAA	Ivan Csiszar	ivan.csiszar@noaa.gov
Task Contributor	GTOS	Canadian Forest Service	Tim Lynham	tim.lynham@nrcan.gc.ca
Task Contributor	GTOS	GOFC-GOLD Fire IT /NOAA/NESDIS	Ivan Csiszar	ivan.csiszar@noaa.gov
Task Contributor	GTOS	GOFC-GOLD Secretariat /Canadian Forest Service	Michael Brady	mbrady@nrcan.gc.ca
Task Contributor	GTOS	University of Maryland	Chris Justice	justice@hermes.geog.umd.edu
Task Contributor	Japan	FFPRI	Yasumasa Hirata	hirat09@ffpri.affrc.go.jp
Task Contributor	Japan	JAXA	Kazuya Kaku	kaku.kazuya@jaxa.jp
Task Contributor	Japan	MAFF/AFFRIT	Yukiko Ishikawa	ishikawa@affrc.go.jp
Task Contributor	Spain	Instituto Nacional de Investigaci	Federico González-Alonso	alonso@inia.es
Task Contributor	United States	NOAA	Sher Schranz	sher.schranz@noaa.gov
Task Contributor	WMO	RES/ARE/AER	Liisa Jalkanen	ljalkanen@wmo.int