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Draft:AlertCalifornia

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AlertCalifornia is a fire lookout system involving a network of more than 1,000[1] mountaintop cameras, largely replacing California's previous system of occupied fire lookout towers. Footage from these cameras are routinely used by news agencies in reference to natural disasters and hazardous events. The system is run by University of California, San Diego in partnership with Calfire, DigitalPath, and a number of public utility, state, and federal organizations.[2]

The project features a public webpage with live camera feeds and archive of still images which have been employed to train a machine learning system prompting emergency workers to inspect automatically identify anomalies.[3]

History

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In 2001 the University of California, San Diego and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography began building The High Performance Wireless Research and Education Network (HPWREN)[4] connecting radio transmission towers in Southern California for the purpose of geological monitoring in remote locations. This system of line-of-site radio towers proved useful to firefighting agencies, emergency workers, and other community organizations. HPWREN scaled it's model to include additional partners at universities in Nevada, Oregon, and Washington. As the issue of wildfires became increasingly problematic in 2019, the project found considerable support from the state of California, and expanded its infrastructure significantly.[5]

Awards and Recognition

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  • In 2023 the project's AI was listed among Time Magazine's best inventions of the year.[6]
  • In 2024 AlertCalifornia recieved the CENIC award for "Innovations in Networking Award for Public Safety".[7]

References

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  1. ^ Landers, Jay (2023-06-29). "Monitoring system improves response to fires, other hazards". American Society of Civil Engineers. Retrieved 2024-11-25.
  2. ^ Elam, Stephanie (2023-09-23). "How California is using AI to snuff out wildfires before they explode". CNN. Retrieved 2024-11-25.
  3. ^ Fuller, Thomas (August 24, 2023). "Can A.I. Detect Wildfires Faster Than Humans? California Is Trying to Find Out". The New York Times.
  4. ^ "High Performance Wireless Research and Education Network". www.hpwren.ucsd.edu. Retrieved 2024-11-20.
  5. ^ "History". ALERTCalifornia. Retrieved 2024-11-20.
  6. ^ "200 Best Inventions of 2023". Time. Retrieved 2024-11-20.
  7. ^ "CENIC | CENIC Recognizes UC San Diego's ALERTCalifornia, CAL FIRE, and DigitalPath for Creating AI Tool for Wildfire Detection". cenic.org. 2024-03-14. Retrieved 2024-11-20.