Bushfire Surveyor System
An aerial view of burnt vegetation and houses from the 2018 Tathra bushfire
Version 1.0 of the Bushfire Surveyor System (BSS) app has been released by the CSIRO development team.
This field-ready test version features a functioning BSS Android mobile app and the core BSS online web platform.
Survey records created in the BSS app can be exported for further analysis or archival storage.
BSS Version 1.0 Release Notes available.
The challenge
Co-designing an app to easily collect and analyse data for bushfire impacted areas.
Understanding the Bushfire Surveyor System
0:00
Hey, I’m Peter Baker and I’m looking forward to telling you about the Bush Fire Surveyor system.
0:05
So it’s being built as part of the National Bush Fire Intelligence Capability or NBIC programme, and I’m a member of the development team for this system.
0:14
So firstly, I just want to tell you a bit about Bush fire surveys.
0:17
So they help us understand how bushfires impact houses and the environment.
0:21
And the data that’s collected ultimately informs guidelines, community education and policy options to help us better prepare our communities and protect our people, homes and the environment.
0:34
So what is the Bush Fire Surveyor system or the BSS?
0:38
It’s a national platform to collect to post Bush fire damage assessments.
0:44
The BSS is being purpose built as a national platform and we’re keeping a few things in mind while we design and build it.
0:52
We’d like to build customisable surveys which collect high quality, secure and nationally consistent data.
0:59
We also like to build features that are tailored to the user’s needs through co-design and testing.
1:04
We want to make sure that the app that’s built is intuitive and easy to use and collaborative so that the on boarding process is really simple and that so that users enjoy using the app.
1:15
Furthermore, we’d like to ensure there’s no enterprise licences so it’s accessible to everyone who needs to use it.
1:22
We’re actually building the BSS app right now and it’s based on user feedback that we’ve collected from a working group with members representing both state and national organisations.
1:31
You can see some screenshots on the right here of current views in the applications design.
1:37
Now I’m going to give you a brief demonstration of a tool called Fire Vision that was built by a colleague of mine at CSIRO called Ben Leighton.
1:46
So what this tool does is it takes an image that you might have collected, for example, during a post Bush fire damage assessment, and it uses an AI tool to produce a description of that data, of that image rather, which conforms to this structured data format.
2:02
So I’m going to jump across now and show you what that looks like.
2:08
So I’ve selected an image here that I’ve taken for example, with my phone camera.
2:13
What I’m doing now is sending that off to this service which can understand the meaning of that image and then reduce a description which conforms to a structured data format.
2:24
And because that data is structured, it means we can use it in an application like the BSS.
2:29
So this could automatically pre fill while you’re in the field.
2:33
A survey of a property.
2:35
So for example, there’s some description about the structure and number of stories and other information about the building here, some material descriptions which are conforming to a list of available materials that it can select, information about the damage of the property as well as the vegetation that surrounds it.
2:52
So you can imagine a tool like this could really accelerate the surveying process and also ensure that the data is consistent and high quality.
3:03
Thank you so much for listening to this presentation about Bush Fire Surveyor system.
3:07
If you’d like to talk to us, you can always send an email to the address on this slide or you could visit this website, research dot CSIRO dot AU/ NBIC to learn more.
3:15
Thank you for listening.
Peter Baker, Bushfire Surveyor System team member provides background information and possible future technologies
While bushfires are a natural part of the ecosystem, uncontrolled and intense fires, often referred to as ‘catastrophic fires’, present significant threats and challenges to both human communities and the environment.
The impact on life and property is considerable and will increase with the frequency and severity of these fires.
Our response
The National Bushfire Intelligence Capability (NBIC) is working to understand how and why houses, other infrastructure and the environment become damaged or destroyed in bushfires so that we can help avoid future losses.
How we achieve impact?
We are creating a Bushfire Surveyor System (BSS) application that will enable emergency agencies, researchers and citizens to easily collect and analyse data for bushfire impacted areas.
Bushfire surveys help us understand how houses and the environment are impacted by bushfires.
With this understanding we can better prepare our communities by using data to inform guidelines, community education and policy options.
There are limitations to the bushfire surveying methods that currently exist. For example, during the 2019/20 Black Summer fires, fire agencies were unable to conduct comprehensive surveys for a significant proportion of the affected area due to a lack of resources and capability.
One way to resolve this resource and capability gap is through the development of a consistent national approach for post-bushfire data collection that enables greater inter-agency collaboration and citizen participation. Such an approach is the focus of the Bushfire Surveyor System (BSS).
The BSS app will feature:
- high quality, secure and nationally consistent data
- an intuitive and collaborative user experience
- no enterprise licenses, making it more accessible to more people and agencies
- two parts with tailored features and processes, co-designed with users:
- A comprehensive surveying app for Emergency Agency staff and researchers to customise and conduct surveys on bushfire affected areas. The app supports:
- rapid assessments that provide a quick evaluation of the site and properties affected
- detailed assessments that investigate the attack mechanisms of fires and the vulnerability of the built environment to these attacks.
- A lightweight survey tool for citizens to easily submit information about their own home and property damage.
Who is involved?
Researchers and agency representatives work together to assess house loss after a bushfire.
Researchers and agency representatives work together to assess house loss after a bushfire.
The Bushfire Surveyor System team is working collaboratively with representatives from state and territory government agencies in:
- Western Australia
- South Australia
- Victoria
- New South Wales
- Australian Capital Territory
- Queensland.
These representatives form a Working Group to provide insights into user needs and operating and working environments.
The Working Group has met 6 times and provided insights into product and supply chain optimisation and user needs.
In the coming months the Working Group will provide user tested feedback on pre-release versions of the app to ensure they meet the operating and working environments of users.