SCC-PG: Smart and Safe Prescribed Burning for Rangeland and Farmland Communities

Prescribed fire has long been used by farmers and ranchers in the Midwest as a land management tool. It helps farming and grazing by replenishing soil, increasing forage production, controlling harmful parasites, and protecting prairies from invasive overgrowth. It is also increasingly used by land managers to reduce the risk of wildfires.

Despite the many benefits of prescribed fires, there are health and safety concerns for prescribed burning events, including air pollution to local communities caused by smoke, and damage of properties and injury of people resulted from escaped and uncontrollable fires. This planning grant enables research to develop an innovative community sensing, planning, & learning infrastructure to support smart and safe prescribed burning for communities that use prescribed fires for land management.

The proposed research will serve communities as an informative guide and smart cyber connection for landowners to optimally plan and coordinate their prescribed fires, collect and share data, and train landowners to learn the most effective burn approaches. The research outcomes of this project will make a broader impact on grassland preservation, wildlife habitat, and environmental protection.

The proposed research will be based on a framework that comprises multiple layers: 1) a multi-scale sensing layer to collect data from three heterogeneous