Australia’s catastrophic February wildfires have sparked proposals for the development of a fully integrated airborne fire surveillance and response system using UAVs to provide early detection of hotspots and to guide aerial water bombing aircraft in smoke obscured conditions.
The proposal has been put forward by a humanitarian aid specialist from Australia’s Charles Darwin University, Dan Baschiera, in a submission to the current Royal Commission examining what are now known as the ‘Black Saturday’ fires in the state of Victoria.
The proposal follows in the wake of a separate information exchange between emergency services authorities in Victoria and UAV experts