Thai Team Wins Space Business Idea Contest Using Satellites to Pinpoint Forest Fires

[webfact]

 

By Natthaphon  Sangpolsit

    

BANGKOK (NNT) - A team from Thailand has won an international space business contest, using satellites and mobile networks to pinpoint the location of forest fires and provide support to firefighters in the area.

 

Dr. Damrongrit Niammuad, deputy director of Geo-Informatics and Space Technology Development Agency (GISTDA), revealed that Team EcoSpace from Thailand won the S-Booster 2021 competition held on December 17 in Japan.

 

S-Booster is a contest organized by the National Space Policy Secretariat Cabinet Office of the Japanese government, with the aim of creating business ideas using space assets.

 

Participants who advance to the final round receive assistance from professionals in turning their creative ideas into commercial potential. In the final stage, the finalists presented their ideas to investors and business companies.

 

Business matching opportunities will be made available to link individuals and organizations with ideas to investors and firms that can assist with future commercialization.

 

For this year’s competition, the Ecospace Team amazed the judges by developing a system to accurately locate forest fires using a Low Power Wide Area Network, combined with data and photos from GISTDA satellites.

 

This technology also reduces communication issues in disaster regions while improving the capabilities of firefighters and volunteers, as well as helping ensure their safety. The system has already been implemented to assist authorities in Chiang Mai province.

 

-- © Copyright NNT 2021-12-20

 

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[Classic Ray]

Congratulations to the team, maybe this can also be used to detect the sites of crop burning which poison the atmosphere every year especially in Northern Thailand but throughout many parts of Asia. Perhaps then pressure can be put on those responsible to eliminate it.

[dpcjsr]

LOL, OMG! The irony as I look out my window and cannot see the mountains for all of the smoke. 

[Reigntax]

I have a feeling this has been happening for a decade or more in countries around the world.

 

so well done in discovering what the outside world already knew!!

[Danderman123]

Detecting forest fires from satellites is an old idea. More to the point, it only works if the fire can be detected in real time, and I don’t think the Thai satellites are designed for real time operations. So, this concept can be used to identify fires that happened last week.

[Tarteso]

Good idea, but they forget the essential;  Education and awareness in colleges and Universities ... the future depends on them, not on a few Generals and old farmers who, among other things, have their lands and air contaminated with chemicals.  This is called Environmental Education.

[marcho]

With that Technology surely they can nab the illegal burners and prosecute them. Oh no we can not do that, thats a bit to hard. LOL

[mikebell]

Why not set up a team of vigilant locals who can look out of their office window and spot a plume of smoke.  They would be paid for their work and perhaps be given a brown uniform.

[hotchilli]

5 hours ago, webfact said:

A team from Thailand has won an international space business contest, using satellites and mobile networks to pinpoint the location of forest fires and provide support to firefighters in the area.

So no excuses for the burning to continue then, with home-grown technology at their disposal?

[Almer]

Report report report, burning is illegal  and wrong for the environment we all no, make enough noise at local level and things will be done,!if you are in a village speak with the head man he has a lot of influence as long as he dosnt own the field that is burning, a fine for the farmers has to be a deterrent not allow the fine cheaper than the removal from the field.

[NorthernRyland]

Satellites. LOL. Just talking to a Thai man yesterday that's sickened by the burning also. He says the police can't arrest people because if they do then they won't vote for the politicians that the police work under. People themselves don't care if they live in poison death clouds because they are "slow learners".

 

Satellites? LOL.

[mtls2005]

Not sure how innovative or "business-y" this is? We've been looking at satellite fire maps for ages haven't we?

 

 

Now if they could coordinate with a space laser to zap folks starting fires we might be onto real CHANGE?

 

 

[sandyf]

1 hour ago, Danderman123 said:

Detecting forest fires from satellites is an old idea. More to the point, it only works if the fire can be detected in real time, and I don’t think the Thai satellites are designed for real time operations. So, this concept can be used to identify fires that happened last week.

One has to assume you also think the judges are incompetent.

[stevomaui]

No need to spot forest fires in northern Thailand , just look up at the mountain from your window, its on fire everywhere 

[sandyf]

1 hour ago, Tarteso said:

Good idea, but they forget the essential;  Education and awareness in colleges and Universities ... the future depends on them, not on a few Generals and old farmers who, among other things, have their lands and air contaminated with chemicals.  This is called Environmental Education.

Remind me,  how is the clean up in Danang progressing.

[Grusa]

2 hours ago, Danderman123 said:

Detecting forest fires from satellites is an old idea. More to the point, it only works if the fire can be detected in real time, and I don’t think the Thai satellites are designed for real time operations. So, this concept can be used to identify fires that happened last week.

I've had it for years!:-

 

[Bangkok Barry]

3 hours ago, Classic Ray said:

Congratulations to the team, maybe this can also be used to detect the sites of crop burning which poison the atmosphere every year especially in Northern Thailand but throughout many parts of Asia. Perhaps then pressure can be put on those responsible to eliminate it.

The smoke kind of gives it away. But nobody cares.

[Srikcir]

NASA NOAA has been using satellites combined with a fleet of planes from US Forest Service to pinpoint and track fires. I expect US ground firefighters also use their smart phones to access such data real time to know direction of attack or retreat fighting fires.

But congrats to the team on Google expertise?

[cape]

Make me laugh. Migration is a major challenge for the next 30 years and much of it is for climate reasons, so not economic and still less political.

Now we read here there's money to be made from attempts to understand and manage the change. Surprise.

As it is a global challenge, causes and effects that do not respe t man-made borders and legal systems, it requires that nations collaborate through supra national bodies, such as ASEAN.

This is already the future in Northern Thailand. The govt can take the lead and position itself at the front of ASEAN on what is actually not a complicated problem.

It is a few farmers vs. the health of millions.

So, great to see the initiative, now move into solutions mode and surprise us some more.

[cape]

What is so sad is that year after year the problem of man made airborne pollution in N Thailand and surrounding countries, continues, unabated.

The people are ignored. Their health counts for nothing.

How can this be?

[rudi49jr]

Very good idea! The Thai authorities will never use it, though, since they have shown zero interest so far in stopping fires and air pollution in general. Such a shame.

[welshissan]

4 hours ago, sandyf said:

Remind me,  how is the clean up in Danang progressing.

Remind us how Da Bang was hit by a natural occurrence and not a man made one here in Thailand !!

[sandyf]

11 minutes ago, welshissan said:

Remind us how Da Bang was hit by a natural occurrence and not a man made one here in Thailand !!

Try reading the post properly, you will be telling us next that agent orange worked for the CIA.

[Dont confuse me]

What! They need a satellite to find the crop burning.

Country is a joke, full of clowns!

[WinterGael]

Great idea... not.  Coming from a province in Canada where forestry is a major part of the economy, and forest fires a huge problem, all I can say is satellites have been important for detection for years. Usually by the time a satellite picks it up, it's too late.

[StayinThailand2much]

Have they found Uranus?

[worldexpress]

What they need is to pinpoint these and fix them 

[herfiehandbag]

On 12/20/2021 at 8:07 AM, mikebell said:

Why not set up a team of vigilant locals who can look out of their office window and spot a plume of smoke.  They would be paid for their work and perhaps be given a brown uniform.

An excellent idea. Perhaps take it a step further ( once the system you have suggested has bedded in) and have them go out of the office to the fire and deal with it...

[desert dueller]

...pinpoint the location of The Hub.