Help Australia predict wildfires in 2021

Australian wildfires season of 2019–20, also known as the Black Summer, is a period that saw intense bush fires in many parts of the country. While some estimates peg a cost of $100 Billion to the Australian economy, it’s indirect impact on lives, and ecology is not measurable.

Fires and the resultant billowing smoke cascading off the edge of Australia on Jan. 01, 2020. Source: NASA.

The monetary impact includes damage to homes and businesses as well as their contents and cars, job and wage losses, farm and crop losses, infrastructure damage, auxiliary business losses, school closures, and the costs of power outages to businesses and individuals as well as the destruction of wildlife. It is therefore crucial to improve forecasting for wildfires for several reasons:

1. To prepare and respond
2. To understand the root causes
3. To help to mitigate wildfires in the future

With the recent trends of such catastrophic events, data available from past wildfires can be used to predict such future occurrences. The Call for Code Spot Challenge for Wildfires is one such initiative that aims to engage data scientists to develop models focused on forecasting wildfires in Australia for the upcoming wildfire season. The details of the challenge will be announced at the upcoming Digital Developer Conference on November 24, 2020. The objective will be to forecast wildfires in Australia during the month of February 2021 to better understand the application of machine learning techniques in this domain.

Register for the virtual Digital Developer Conference: Data & AI to learn more about the challenge, participation criteria, and win great prizes!

Be a part of this global challenge in leveraging the power of data to bring a positive change.