Google’s fire alert tool expands to 15 countries in Europe and Africa, including Greece.
It is an Artificial Intelligence-based tool and allows detailed monitoring of fire boundaries in Search, Maps and also through push notifications.
The countries receiving it are: Andorra, Bosnia and Herzegovina, France, Greece, Spain, Italy, Kenya, Croatia, Cyprus, Montenegro, Monaco, Portugal, Rwanda, Slovenia and Turkey. The service was already available in the USA, Canada, Australia, Brazil, Argentina, Chile and Mexico.
Accurate and reliable tracking
Google’s AI fire monitoring model is trained using a variety of data sources, including a wide variety of satellite imagery data.
Additionally, the wildfire model is validated by comparing it to Google’s model of fire scars – that is, the shapes on the ground created after a fire is contained – based on measurements from previous fires.’
Other AI models are used to check for fires, and all of them together allow for more accurate and clear fire boundaries than using satellite imagery alone.
Accessible, useful information when people need it
After launching this new service this summer, Google has now mapped more than 40 wildfires across southern Europe, including fires in Spain, Greece and Cyprus last month – as well as others from Portugal to Kenya.
Google is displaying fire boundaries on Search and Maps and making information available through notifications, complementing existing efforts to help people access information and stay safe. In the first week of July alone, after fires began burning in Europe and Africa, nearly 1.4 million people viewed Google information related to the fires.
Fire boundary location, the company notes, is intended to be a useful tool for both residents of an area who speak the language and visitors who may not speak the local language. These alerts are based on the user’s language settings and preference, allowing travelers during the tourist season to receive timely information about local fires in their language.
When using the navigation function
The information also appears on Google Maps when using the navigation feature, helping travelers understand if there are wildfires near their route.
This is just one of the many ways Google is using AI to help communities around the world adapt to the effects of climate change and the risks it poses. The feature has already been rolled out in countries affected by fires over the past few summers, and builds on the strengths of Google’s model in each country. As the company works to improve its services, it plans to expand to more countries to continue sharing important information with people when they need it.
Source: APE – MEB