Saxony-Anhalt evaluates AI drones and satellites for early wildfire detection

State monitoring strategy

The state government of Saxony-Anhalt is assessing aerial drone and orbital satellite systems to improve early wildfire detection after wildfires in multiple German regions generated widespread attention during the summer months. In an official response to an inquiry from the Deutsche Presse-Agentur, the forestry ministry in Magdeburg explained that regional authorities focus on shortening the time window between the initial outbreak of a blaze and the dispatch of emergency alerts to local fire command centres. The state currently operates an active surveillance network comprising artificial intelligence camera installations across 16 fixed regional sites to meet rapid notification requirements. State forestry officials plan to monitor and evaluate emerging remote sensing platforms in conjunction with ongoing silvicultural programmes aimed at long-term forest restructuring.

Field trials in the Harz mountains

The evaluation of airborne monitoring builds directly on field experiments conducted in 2023, when researchers completed pilot test flights with sensor-equipped drones across the Harz mountain range. The testing programme involved Simon Gehringer, who serves as the team leader for Evolonic, a specialized research group operating through the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg at the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Systems and Device Technology. During the Harz deployment, the airborne imaging system successfully identified a controlled test fire measuring at most one metre across from an observation range of two to three kilometres. Gehringer reported that the automated optical setup confirmed the heat source rapidly despite the very small surface area of the initial burn.

We detected the forest fire back then, relatively quickly, despite it being so small.

Published findings on fire behavior

Field data collected during the Harz mountain experiments and complementary testing rounds in Saxony-Anhalt and Brandenburg underwent formal academic evaluation and publication in January. Researchers from Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg and the Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing presented their joint results in the scientific journal Fire and Materials. The investigation concluded that drone sensors yield essential empirical measurements regarding flame propagation, smoke plume evolution, and the physical behavior of forest fires. The authors determined that these detailed datasets provide vital parameters for computer models designed to refine future operational fire management and suppression strategies.

Extended range and ground robotics

Technical evaluations conducted by the Evolonic team indicate that autonomous aerial systems operating under favourable environmental conditions can spot nascent blazes within a matter of minutes. Rapid automated notification enables emergency response units to initiate targeted extinguishing actions far more quickly under optimal operating conditions. To overcome the range limits of existing aircraft, researchers are developing an advanced fuel-cell propulsion system intended to support largely automated surveillance flights lasting up to eight hours. Alongside the airborne drone platform, research personnel are currently conducting field tests with dog-like walking robots to evaluate automated ground-based exploration and monitoring in difficult forest environments.