Fabric---ESRI 🚀 MSLA AI Project: Ecuador 2024 Fires

🌍 Opportunity: Pre-and-Post Fire Risk in Global Communities

🔥 Pre-Fire Risks

• Climate change, deforestation, and land use changes increase wildfire frequency and intensity.
• 2024 Ecuador Fires burned 76,000+ hectares, destroying forests, farmland, and infrastructure.
• Communities lack AI-driven risk assessment tools to prepare and mitigate damage.

🌍 Post-Fire Risks Can Be Even Greater

• Landslides, erosion, and water contamination create long-term hazards after the fire is out.
• Loss of forests and agricultural land disrupts ecosystems, food supply, and economic stability.
• Without post-fire risk planning, communities struggle to rebuild safely and sustainably.

💡 The Challenge

How do we help communities manage wildfire risks before and after disaster strikes?

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💡 Solution: AI + GIS for Wildfire Risk & Resilience

🌍 Before the Fire: Predict & Prepare

• AI-driven risk mapping identifies high-risk wildfire zones.
• GIS-powered community hardening strategies protect forests, farmland & infrastructure.

🔥 After the Fire: Assess & Rebuild Safely

• AI + GIS detect landslides, erosion & water contamination risks.
• Data-driven recovery plans support agriculture, ecosystems & economic stability.

📌 Case Study: Ecuador Wildfires 2024

• Analyzing 76,000+ hectares of burned land to assess forest loss & agricultural impact.
• Identifying communities at risk of post-fire flooding & landslides due to erosion.
• Using AI + GIS to map recovery priorities for reforestation & infrastructure rebuilding.

🔹 Scalable, accessible, and built for global communities facing climate-driven wildfire risks.

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🖥️ Demo: GeoAI with Microsoft Fabric & Esri ArcGIS Pro

📍 Microsoft Fabric for Data Processing & Analysis

• Loads & unzips Landsat geospatial data for GIS analysis.
• Processes, analyzes & visualizes structured tabular data, including demographics, economics & climate indexes.

📍 Esri ArcGIS Pro for Geospatial Insights

• Maps fire risk zones & post-fire impacts using NBR & NDVI satellite imagery.

📍 AI + GIS for Wildfire Resilience

• Identifies risk zones & humanitarian impacts for pre-fire mitigation & post-fire recovery.
• Dashboards help governments & humanitarian organizations prioritize response strategies.

📌 Future Potential
An AI chatbot using Azure OpenAI & Power Virtual Agents could enhance adoption and accessibility for global communities.

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🎓 Takeaways: Team, Certifications & Strategic Partnerships

📍 Team Collaboration & Certification

• Includes prior winning MSLA AI Project members.
• Krishna & Philippa received DP-600 vouchers and completed Microsoft Certified: Fabric Analytics Engineer Associate studies.

📍 Mentorship & Partnerships

• Advised by Philippa’s mentors from USGS EROS Center – Wildland Fire Support.
• Manuel & Philippa coordinated a University of Southern California (USC) & Universidad Técnica de Manabí (UTM) partnership to expand research, engage local governments & NGOs, and pursue funding opportunities.
• Applied for NASA Lifelines (67 applicants – 12 accepted, not awarded but received high compliments on application) & another grant (pending).

📍 Expanding AI + GIS Capabilities

• Gained experience in Microsoft Fabric & Esri ArcGIS Pro for fire mapping & risk assessment.
• Expanded our GeoAI applications beyond Azure ML Studio into Microsoft Fabric & Esri ArcGIS Pro for data processing, storage, analysis, visualization & insight.

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📌 Next Steps

• Continue refining AI + GIS wildfire risk assessment models.
• Explore AI chatbot potential for community-driven risk awareness.
• Enhance multilingual access & user engagement strategies.

🚀 Advancing AI + GIS solutions to support wildfire resilience worldwide.