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Towards Forest Fire Prevention and Combat Through Citizen Science

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New Knowledge in Information Systems and Technologies (WorldCIST'19 2019)

Part of the book series: Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing ((AISC,volume 930))

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Abstract

Involving the community (volunteers) in citizen science projects is a good way to address and prevent a lot of societal concerns. The participation of volunteers has been quit frequent in citizen science projects; making them a fundamental key for the success of these projects. Volunteers participate in citizen science projects by collecting and processing data that can be used for various purposes such as educational, scientific, preservation of biodiversity, decision-making, etc. In forest fire prevention, participation of citizens in collecting and processing data could help significantly in decision-making related to forest fire prevention and mitigation. Mobile phones can be the tool of choice for collecting data due to not only to its wide availability and powerful communication features but also to its embedded sensing capabilities such as GPS location, camera and microphone.

This study is concerning to the development of a mobile-based citizen science project that allows volunteers to report fire-prone area, the occurrence of fire, and area where fire has occurred; then these information are used by firefighters and specialists for decision-making. In a scenario of fire occurrence, volunteers can take a picture of the place where the fire is occurring, upload to the mobile application, and send GPS location of the place; then the application notifies the firefighters and helps them allocate the needed resources to combat the fire based on the information sent by the volunteers.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Instituto de Telecomunicações, Dep. de Informática, Universidade da Beira Interior, 6200-001, Covilhã, Portugal

    João Bioco & Paulo Fazendeiro

Authors
  1. João Bioco
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  2. Paulo Fazendeiro
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Correspondence to João Bioco .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Engenharia Informática, Universidade de Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal

    Álvaro Rocha

  2. The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA

    Hojjat Adeli

  3. Faculdade de Engenharia/LIACC, Universidade do Porto, Porto, Portugal

    Luís Paulo Reis

  4. DIMES, Università della Calabria, Arcavacata di Rende, Italy

    Sandra Costanzo

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Bioco, J., Fazendeiro, P. (2019). Towards Forest Fire Prevention and Combat Through Citizen Science. In: Rocha, Á., Adeli, H., Reis, L., Costanzo, S. (eds) New Knowledge in Information Systems and Technologies. WorldCIST'19 2019. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, vol 930. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-16181-1_85

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