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Recently published research from RA member Dirac Twidwell and colleagues explores the potential use of unmanned aerial systems (UAS) for fire management, including a prototype fire drone.

Managing wildfire and fire-adapted ecosystems often involves lighting fires, either as part of suppression tactics to reduce fuel load or as part of a prescribed burning plan. The task can be made safer according to Dirac Twidwell, Craig Allen and colleagues by using drones (UAS) to ignite fires.

In a paper published this month in Frontiers in Ecology & the Environment, the authors explore how fire management, particularly in the U.S., has changed over time with escalating costs as well as risks to individuals, and they propose a solution. The team of researchers have developed and tested a fire-igniting drone with the potential to both reduce risks to fire crew and costs compared to helicopter-based ignitions.

Craig Allen, who co-authored the paper says the UAS could be used specifically to help fight an ongoing regime change in the great plains - the change from grassland to woodland driven by cedar invasion and mediated by the loss of fire. The use of UAS in fire management is not limited to ignition and could include fire monitoring, data collection, and improved transmission of information and communication. The authors describe some of the institutional challenges associated with implementing this type of technological innovation and the potential to improving the effectiveness of fire management in both the U.S. and internationally.

Links:
Video of the prototype fire-starting drone in action: http://bit.ly/22W7x1T

Full citation:

Twidwell, D., C.R. Allen, C. Detweiler, J. Higgins, C. Laney, and S. Elbaum. 2016. Smokey comes of age: unmanned aerial systems for fire management. Front Ecol Environ 14(6): 333-339, doi:10.1002/fee.1299