Safe Route system helps users to monitor bush fires in their region, alerts them in case of emergency, assists with evacuation and allows users to notify Emergency Services if they need to be rescued.

Australian bushfire policy for community safety is unique. Rather than attempting to evacuate all those who may be in the path of a bushfire, fire authorities in all States allow the public to make a choice: either get  out of the area early, or prepare to stay and defend homes and property from  the fire. However statistics shows that during bushfire the number of human fatalities due to the late evacuation or unawareness of bushfire is comparable to that of who decided to fight the fire (Haynes et al., 2008).

Purpose of this project is not to change the mind of people who chose to  stay and fight for their properties, but to help to those who could be  evacuated and saved in time, but failed to do it because of unawareness or being entangled in bushfire labyrinth.

Functionality of our software suite is based on the use of bushfire locations provided by Geoscience Australia via SENTINEL system. It continuously  monitors bushfire positions and, in case of proximity to individual, will  issue an alarm and quickly suggest the best way for evacuation. Massive propagation of the fire on large areas could affect road network in places that cannot be seen from the distance. Therefore people may choose wrong  road and be trapped in the middle of the fire. The unique feature of our  algorithm is to prevent such situation taking into account roads closed by bushfire and choose the way free of obstacles.

Additional capability of our  system is to report automatically geographical coordinates of the person  if there are no open roads for evacuation and he requires help of the  rescue team. Data processed in real time by our system can help to Emergency Management Agencies in analysis of number of people affected by bushfire, their routes of evacuation and, therefore, plan better number of ambulances in required locations, machinery and crews.

Our software can be used for different types of hazards  and further can be extended to handle floods, storms, and massive chemical  accidents and explosions.

Safe Route Project Presentation