Google adds new wildfire boundary maps for Europe and Africa

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Throughout one week in July, in response to reports, firefighters fought by the night time as wildfires blazed on the Greek islands of Kos, Chios and Crete. Authorities within the Spanish neighborhood of Extremadura activated 60 personnel to regulate a forest fireplace — one in every of 18 threatening the area. One wildfire, in response to reports, within the Paphos area of Cyprus, was attributable to mild refracted by damaged glass. In response to estimates, territory that’s fire-prone in Europe has doubled within the final 50 years.

Utilizing AI, we’re in a position to present detailed wildfire boundary tracking in Search and Maps and thru location-based push notifications. Now, throughout this record-breaking summer season, we’re increasing* this instrument to fifteen nations throughout Europe and Africa:

  • Andorra
  • Bosnia & Herzegovina
  • Croatia
  • Cyprus
  • France
  • Greece
  • Italy
  • Kenya
  • Monaco
  • Montenegro
  • Portugal
  • Rwanda
  • Slovenia
  • Spain
  • Türkiye

We’re surfacing this info by alerts and options that present details about how you can keep protected to people who find themselves close to a wildfire.

Correct and dependable monitoring

Google’s AI-powered wildfire monitoring mannequin is educated on a number of sources of knowledge, together with a wide range of satellite tv for pc imagery information units. We additionally validate our wildfire mannequin by evaluating it towards our personal mannequin of fireplace scars — shapes decided after a hearth has been contained — primarily based on measurements from previous wildfire occasions. Different AI fashions are used to confirm the existence of fires, and collectively all of this permits extra correct and definitive wildfire boundaries than utilizing satellite tv for pc imagery alone.

Accessible and helpful info when individuals want it

As we had been rolling out this new functionality this summer season, we mapped over 40 wildfires in southern Europe, together with fires in Spain, Greece and Cyprus final month — and others from Portugal to Kenya.

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