Seoul City Goes All Out on 'Wildfire Prevention Measures'... Monitoring Wildfires with Advanced Drones

Operation of 'Wildfire Prevention Headquarters' from the 1st in Response to Dry Spring Season
Establishing Wildfire Prevention and Response System through AI-Based Advanced Drone Automatic Operation System

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] The Seoul Metropolitan Government announced on the 7th that it has established a comprehensive wildfire prevention plan for 2022 and will operate the "Wildfire Prevention Headquarters" from February 1 to May 15, a period when the risk of wildfires increases due to dry spring weather, to fully respond to wildfire prevention.

In Seoul, an average of 11 wildfires have occurred annually over the past 10 years, with a total affected area of 12,200㎡, which is 1.7 times the size of a soccer field. To prevent wildfire occurrences, monitoring equipment such as unmanned surveillance cameras will be used to frequently check conditions, and emergency duty will be initiated to immediately operate firefighting vehicles and extinguishing facilities.

In particular, advanced unmanned aerial drones equipped with high-performance cameras will be deployed to establish a wide-area surveillance network. To prevent arson by visitors, drones will patrol areas with frequent wildfires, enabling rapid response.

Additionally, to strengthen wildfire monitoring, 18 new black box cameras will be installed in addition to the 14 existing unmanned surveillance cameras (previously 89 black boxes). This aims to eliminate blind spots not covered by existing cameras and raise public awareness. The city plans to continuously install black boxes densely to promote wildfire prevention and track wildfire offenders.

Based on wildfire statistics from the past 30 years, wildfire monitoring personnel (262 people) will be deployed mainly in vulnerable areas identified on the wildfire occurrence map to prevent illegal activities such as fire use in forests and conduct intensive patrols. Twenty-four locations, including Bukhansan and Suraksan?areas where wildfires frequently occurred?have been designated as "wildfire risk areas," with patrols strengthened. With the opening of Bugaksan, additional wildfire monitoring personnel will be deployed there for frequent patrols.

To prevent arson by visitors, wildfire prevention promotional videos and webtoons will be conducted, and a public crisis communication and resident evacuation guidance system will be established to prevent human and property damage caused by wildfires. During the spring, when wildfires occur most frequently, a 20-second wildfire prevention promotional video will be displayed in subways and other transportation and multi-use facilities, and webtoons will be actively promoted on SNS platforms.

The wildfire equipment modernization project to strengthen ground firefighting capabilities will continue this year. To improve and enhance the performance of wildfire equipment, the city plans to continuously expand and strengthen the initial firefighting foundation by additionally securing modernized ground firefighting equipment such as a high-pressure water hose system that connects fire hoses to mountain summits for firefighting, wildfire firefighting vehicles, and mechanized wildfire firefighting systems.

Advanced drones will be used for aerial firefighting, and a cooperative system with related agencies will be established to jointly utilize 29 firefighting helicopters owned by each agency. Seoul plans to pilot a project to extinguish wildfires using large unmanned aerial drones equipped with eco-friendly extinguishing agents (aerosols). In the first half of the year, drone equipment will be purchased and systems established, with full-scale operation planned from autumn.

Furthermore, Seoul will do its utmost to prevent wildfires by ensuring hikers do not carry flammable materials when entering major hiking trail entrances, and will rigorously track and strictly punish wildfire offenders.

Yu Young-bong, Director of the Seoul Metropolitan Government’s Green City Bureau, said, “To protect Seoul’s precious forests and citizens’ property, we will mobilize all advanced equipment and personnel and make every effort to prevent wildfires through close cooperation with related agencies such as the Korea Forest Service, Fire Agency, military, and police. We also ask citizens for active participation and cooperation in wildfire prevention activities.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.