A Nice-based start-up has developed an artificial intelligence tool capable of forecasting how a wildfire will spread within minutes of ignition, as France's total burned area this year passes 115,000 hectares, according to France 3 Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur.
Climate Innov, a Franco-Tunisian research company based in Nice, built the tool, known as SecuFire Action, in partnership with the EDHEC Climate Institute and the University of Corsica's SPE-CNRS laboratory. The system draws on satellite imagery, weather data, topography and vegetation analysis to map a fire's likely boundary from the moment it is first reported, dividing the affected area into colour coded zones showing where the model predicts the flames will spread in the hours ahead.
Co-founder Pierre-Alain Révélat said the tool can map fire spread across three by three kilometre parcels, updating hour by hour. "From the very first minute, we're able to position the fire's origin and give an initial outline of that fire," he said, adding the system can also project where flames will be in fifteen minutes, one hour or four hours. Already deployed in Corsica and tested successfully on wildfires in the Drôme, Aude and Fontainebleau this summer, the tool is built on the Balbi physical fire-spread model developed by the University of Corsica's Projet Feu, and independently evaluated by the University of Toulon's IMATH laboratory.