Forest fires are increasingly becoming a threat to the climate. BAM is conducting research in a major European project to prevent and contain the fires.
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The Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und -prüfung (BAM) in Berlin together with 46 other scientific institutions from all over Europe, is researching a new, holistic fire management system to prevent forest fires, which have a damaging effect on climate change. The large-scale project, which is scheduled to last 3.5 years, is funded by the EU's Horizon 2020 programme with 23 million euros.
The fire management system is to incorporate data from around 40 satellites of the European atmospheric monitoring service Copernicus. They will be made available to the project by the European Space Agency (ESA).
The system will also include models developed with artificial intelligence and machine learning to predict the spread of fires, drones for real-time monitoring of forests and virtual reality for training emergency services. An integrated risk assessment system is also planned, with which fires can be effectively fought or, if possible, prevented altogether.
The fire management system will initially be implemented in eight of the participating countries. In Germany, the test run will take place under the direction of BAM, which has many years of experience in the experimental investigation of fires and their spread.
"We will also specifically examine soil samples from Brandenburg and Saxony-Anhalt, regions that have been particularly affected by forest fires in Germany in recent years, for their role in fire spread," explains Anja Hofmann-Böllinghaus, who is responsible for BAM's participation in the project. "To do this, we will take a closer look at parameters such as density, pH value and the special structure of the organic material in the forest soil. The findings are crucial for understanding how forest fires spread, but also for assessing the effectiveness of extinguishing measures and the choice of suitable extinguishing agents."
Globally, forest fires have increased sharply in recent years. Scientists assume that climate change will drastically increase the risk of such environmental disasters. This is because periods of heat and drought also increase as global warming progresses - they are ideal catalysts for fires. In addition, fires are now raging longer and more intensely due to climate change.
Global climate change is not only triggering more and more forest fires, it is also ensuring that forest fires themselves are a growing threat to the climate: On the one hand, the flames release large amounts of CO2 and climate-damaging substances such as methane and soot; on the other hand, they destroy large areas of forest that would be significant for slowing down climate change.
It is therefore important to prevent fires by taking preventive measures and, where this is not possible, to detect sources of fire early and fight them quickly. The new fire management system of the research association, in which BAM is involved, would bring us much closer to these goals.