Times of India
March 23, 2023

Forest fire simulation system soon at C-DAC

A forest fire simulation system that detects forest fires using satellite data and helps simulate their spread in the next 48 hours will be launched by the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing on Wednesday.

The system will help the administration in timely evacuation of people in case of fire, said an official.

A critical infrastructure security training kit and an online course on software will also be launched as a part of its 36th foundation day on Wednesday. The forest fire system is already used on a pilot basis in Sikkim. M Kumar, joint director, C-DAC Hyderabad, said, “Currently, the focus is on functionality, user interface etc and security takes a backstage. But we need engineers in the country to be able to write codes resilient to attacks. The courses can be accessed at www.meghsikshak.in/chariot,” said Kumar.

The ‘forest fire spread simulation system using high performance computing system’ was developed by CDAC Pune in collaboration with the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur and the department of science and technology, Sikkim. “Using the parameters acquired from satellite or provided by forest officials, this system can provide a potential fire spread area up to the next 48 hours,” said A K Nath, executive director, C-DAC.