Use your skills to help our firefighters by mapping static water infrastructure.
At best, all too many of us will be familiar with the sense of powerlessness and horror as the fires of Black Summer tore across the southeast of the continent.
For many others, it was a lot worse. This Saturday, there is a chance to help our overworked emergency services prepare ahead of summer, by participating in SSSI’s FireWater Map-a-thon.
Participants will be tasked with mapping static water infrastructure — dams, water tanks, swimming pools, you name it — to assist authorities and the RFS with preparation and response efforts by updating Australia’s Static Water Supply System.
The data will be used in the Growing Data Foundation’s FireWater web app, which shows how low-cost, long range radio technologies (LoRaWAN) and open GIS mapping systems can be used to provide real time water source data (such as water tanks and natural water sources) to on-the-ground fire crews.
Nearmap will provide high resolution imagery for the effort, joining a host of sponsors including Geoscience Australia, the ICSM, NGIS, VicMap and more.
You can view interviews with the FireWater Map-a-thon project team to learn more. Register to join in and help build the data resources to protect our communities and bushland.
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