A Survey on Monitoring of Wild Animals during Fires Using Drones

Abstract

Forest fires occur for natural and anthropogenic reasons and affect the distribution, structure, and functioning of terrestrial ecosystems worldwide. Monitoring fires and their impacts on ecosystems is an essential prerequisite for effectively managing this widespread environmental problem. With the development of information technologies, unmanned aerial vehicles (drones) are becoming increasingly important in remote monitoring the environment. One of the main applications of drone technology related to nature monitoring is the observation of wild animals. Unmanned aerial vehicles are thought to be the best solution for detecting forest fires. There are methods for detecting wildfires using drones with fire- and/or smoke-detection equipment. This review aims to study the possibility of using drones for monitoring large animals during fires. It was established that in order to use unmanned aerial vehicles to monitor even small groups of wild animals during forest fires, effective unmanned remote sensing technologies in critical temperature conditions are required, which can be provided not only by the sensors used, but also by adapted software for image recognition.