Computer Science Professor Awarded $2 Million to Support Prescribed Fires

ATLANTA — Georgia State Professor of Computer Science Xiaolin Hu has received a $2 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to study how technology can be used to make prescribed fires a safer and more effective tool for preventing wildfires.

Last year, more than 7.5 million acres of land were burned in the United States due to wildfires, according to the National Centers for Environmental Information. Experts say climate change is steadily increasing the average number of fires and the damage they cause, focusing national and international attention on the search for ways to prevent and mitigate wildfires.

One of the most effective ways to do this is with prescribed fires, a focus of some of Hu’s previous research. He and his team of researchers plan to use the NSF grant funding to develop a set of tools to help landowners better plan these controlled burns.

Prescribed burns are a common land management tool in places like Kansas, where Hu is doing his research in collaboration with partners at the University of Kansas, Kansas State University and the University of Missouri, he said. These burns help encourage the growth of useful vegetation such as grass, which feeds livestock like cows. More importantly, they burn off excess vegetation and debris, like long grass and downed trees. Without this fuel, wildfires are less likely to happen, and less severe if they do.

However, if not executed correctly, prescribed fires can “jump” from one property to another.

“The smoldering can be carried by the wind and jump to the neighbor’s land and ignite a fire,” Hu said. “So, that’s a major concern.”

Hu first learned about the importance of prescribed fires during another research project he led that used drones to monitor and predict the movements of fires.

“I learned that, in the Midwest, prescribed fires are a very big deal,” he said. “Every April, there are thousands of fires burned by landowners.”

By talking to landowners and other researchers, Hu and his team came up with an idea to make prescribed fires safer and more effective, starting with a prescribed fire simulation system. Hu said it will be a cloud-based platform that will allow landowners to simulate their burn plans before it’s time to actually light the fire. Using satellite and weather data, the simulation will take geography and weather conditions into account to provide an accurate idea of where the fire will go and how long it will take to finish the prescribed burn.

Drones will also play a part in this project, monitoring the boundaries of the burns and making sure fires don’t cross property lines. This technology can help protect humans by allowing them to monitor fire conditions without being in close proximity.

Hu and his team also plan to work with area high schools to allow students to develop prescribed burn plans using the simulation system, then take a field trip to a demonstration burn so they can observe burn operations and fire behaviors.

“This is a very nice and unique opportunity for students to learn STEM subjects,” Hu said.

For adults, the research team will organize demonstration burns to train landowners and help educate other community members about the benefits of prescribed fires. As Hu puts it: “We want to let people know that everything is connected. Prescribed fires, when carried out in the right way, will do good to the land and people.”

Hu hopes to expand the project to communities in Georgia and elsewhere.

“The tools we’re going to develop I think can be applied in other areas and can be used by many other communities in other states.”

Projects like this are in high demand, especially given what’s happened in places like Maui. As a reflection of the need for this kind of research, the Biden administration has allocated $463 million in 2023 “to assist land managers in planning for wildfire management activities.”

“Fire accidents happen every year and are increasing in frequency,” Hu said. “Wildland fires overall are increasing and are becoming more severe, so there’s a lot of interest at the national and international levels. You have to manage wildland fires. Technology-based tools can help do that.”

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