POTENTIAL APPLICATION OF VRGIS FOR FOREST FIRE HAZARD MONITORING

POTENTIAL APPLICATION OF VRGIS FOR FOREST FIRE HAZARD MONITORING

ABSTRACT
:


In

the

last

few

years,

research

projects

that

merge

Geographical

Information

Systems

(GIS)

with

Virtual

Reality

(VR)

systems

have

gained

more

and

more

popularity
.

Several

recent

developments

in

computing

can

be

seen

as

the

base

for

this

trend
:

the

widespread

use

of

powerful

desktop

computers
.

Advances

in

computer

hard
-

and

software

give

us

the

ability

to

immerse

in

three

dimensional

virtual

worlds

and

interact

with

GIS
-
in

real
-
time
.

This

paper

shows

some

of

the

potential

application

for

virtual

reality/virtual

environments

in

combination

with

GIS

in

hazard

monitoring

especially

in

fire

hazard

monitoring
.


RESEARCH METHODOLOGY



The

field

data

collection,

image

processing

and

GIS

analysis

and

VR

modeling

will

be

applied

in

this

research
.

Field

data

such

as

temperature,

relative

humidity,

soil

moisture

and

wind

speed/direction

will

be

used

for

Drought

Index

(KBDI)

while

satellite

image

data

will

be

classified

and

analyzed

in

order

to

get

the

fuel

map

and

land

use

map
.

Temporal

satellite

image

data

will

be

used

mainly

for

visualization

and

synoptic

capture

of

data
.



Topographic

map

will

be

applied

for

common

surface

model

topography
.

3
D

GIS

application

will

be

also

integrated

into

the

model
.

Data

from

remote

sensi ng

and

ground

survey

will

be

integrated

to

provide

the

surface

features
.

A

fire

risk

model

and

mapping

for

the

various

hazard

shall

be

based

on

normal

GIS

modeling

and

will

be

integrated

into

the

VR

environment
.

Once

the

VR

of

the

hazard

has

been

modeled,

it

shall

be

capable

of

handling

analytical

function

provide

by

GIS
.

The

Virtual

Reality

Modeling

Language

(VRML)

will

be

applied

for

the

hypermap

as

final

out

put
.

Visualization

technique

to

provide

best

output

result

will

be

developed
.


THE EXPECTED RESULTS

The

expected

research

will

develop

a

fire

potential

index

(FPI)

model
.

The

model

was

based

on

the

Fire

Danger

Rating

System's

(FDRS)

that

derived

from

KBDI,

relative

greenness

of

the

Normalized

Difference

Vegetation

Index
.

The

model

result

may

be

a

potential

valuable

fire

management

tool

for

land

management

agencies
.

Forest

fire

hazard

map

(Figure

3
)

will

be

extracted

by

Multi

Criteria

Analysis

using

data

that

acquired

from

weather

map,

fuel

map,

road

and

river

network

map

and

terrain

map
.

From

the

fire

hazard

map

and

model,

a

computer
-
based

model

will

be

extracted

to

predict

wild

fire

behavior

across

time

and

space
.

The

computer

model

uses

fuel

type,

weather

conditions,

slope,

aspect

and

elevation

to

predict

the

direction,

speed,

and

burn

intensity

of

a

wild

fire

across

various

landscapes

(Figure

4
)
.

The

model

will

integrate

Geographic

Information

System

(GIS)

and

Virtual

Reality

(VR)

technology
.

The

dynamic

model

will

be

developed

using

this

technology
.

In

this

approach,

the

spread

simulation

is

used

to

calculate

the

time

it

takes

a

fire

starting

from

any

point

in

the

landscape

to

reach

an

object,

under

given

environmental

conditions
.

This

is

accomplished

by

inverting

the

spread

simulation,

working

from

a

reached

object

backwards

to

all

possible

sources
.

The

delay

times

from

any

point

to

all

objects

can

then

be

input

to

a

potential

model,

used

in

the

GIS

realm

for

assessing

accessibility
.


Ancillary data

(Topo map
)

DEM

Weather data

GIS Analysis

Fire Hazard
Modeling

Dynamic Model and
Visualization (Out put
)

KBDI

Ground Control Point

Image Processing:


NDVI


Supervised Classification


Raster to vector conversion

Satellite Image data

Conclusions



There

is

a

potential

for

VRGIS

application

in

fire

hazard

monitoring
.

T h e

i n t e g r a t i o n

of

geographic

information

systems

and

virtual

reality

technology

will

become

more

natural

in

the

near

future
.

There

will

definitely

be

a

high

demand

for

versatile,

integrated

GIS/VR

models
.

It

is

believed

that

the

integration

of

GIS

and

VR

technology

will

become

an

indispensable

tool

for

planners

and

decision

makers

in

the

near

future
.

Figure 3. Resources for Fire Hazard Map
(Source: Hee Jo,
et all
., 2000)

Figure 2. The Fire Danger Rating System fuel
models (Source: Bradshaw,
et all
., 1983).


Figure 4. 3D Visualization of a forest fire

Slate grey = burned area, dark grey = fire front (Source: Anonymous,
2001).

Figure 1. Flow chart of methodology


Ahmad Rodzi Mahmud, Iwan setiawan, Noordin Ahmad, Abd. Rashid Mohamed Shariff and Sattri Mansor