Wildfires have been significantly affecting the economy, health of citizens and animals, and destroying the ecosystem. Depending on the ecosystem, various practices, such as expanded housing developments and the utilities they require, fire exclusion/firefighting, and timber harvesting, in the past several decades have made it easier for fires to get out of control, according to the USFS. Also in terms of the wellbeing of the humans and animals, it has released toxic smoke in the air that pollutes the environment.
This toxic smoke has already caused air quality to plummet to dangerous levels in California, Oregon and Washington In addition to toxic air, there`s also the debris and ash that covers charred neighborhoods. The ash is the aftermath of everything that was burned up, which includes anything in a home, including chemicals, plastic, and paint, all of which can be toxic to humans and animals. All these catastrophic events has led to large economic toll on communities through property losses, decreased tourism, even changes in the long-term structure of the local economy.
The most fundamental objective of the product would be to effectively extract knowledge of climate change and wildfire data for users. And to establish a dashboard with data analytics and models that include data science to correlate the cause and effect of wildfire by gaining insights from the models.
Wildfires are a natural part of California`s landscape. The fire season in California and across the West is starting earlier and ending later each year because of climate change.
Our mission is to build a successful dashboard that can help the citizens of California and firefighters to understand the cause and effect of wildfires a bit better.
The organization is researched by California State University of Los Angeles, Computer Science Department (E&T A-322).
