How Australia combines modern tech and Indigenous knowledge to fight fire
Australian researchers are integrating Indigenous land management practices with modern AI and satellite technology to improve wildfire detection. By combining traditional knowledge of the landscape with real-time fuel moisture data, experts aim to better predict and mitigate fire risks.
Why it matters
This approach demonstrates how traditional ecological knowledge can be effectively synthesized with modern technology to address the growing global threat of climate-driven wildfires.
Image source, Getty Images Image caption, Spain declared a national state of emergency as it grapples with several major wildfires
The wildfires currently ravaging Europe feel close to home for Professor Marta Yebra, despite being on the other side of the world.
Originally from Spain, the Canberra-based bushfire expert has spent years developing ways for Australia - home to some of the most fire-prone landscapes in the world - to battle its own blazes.
She heads up the Bushfire Research Centre of Excellence, which was set up in the aftermath of Australia's worst fire season on record: the Black Summer fires of 2019-20 , which razed a combined area about the size of the UK.
Her team looks at how technology such as satellites, drones and AI can be used to better detect fires, alongside the knowledge of experienced firefighters.
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