Published on Friday, 24 August 2012 02:29 Australia’s largest
vegetation management company is using cutting-edge mapping
technology to combat a key cause of the dangerous bushfires and
blackouts that plague the nation each year: severed powerlines.
Using technology from Geographic Information System (GIS)
specialists Esri Australia, Active Tree Services developed a
high-tech vegetation monitoring and management system which
layers detailed maps of electricity networks over weather and
vegetation data. Powerlines severed by falling branches during
extreme weather have been linked to several bushfires in recent
years, including the 2009 Victorian Black Saturday tragedy that
claimed a total of 173 lives. Over the past summer, fears that
extreme heat and high winds would lead to severed powerlines and
more bushfires led to electricity cuts in large parts of South
Australia, while thunderstorms and scorching temperatures caused
similar concerns in Victoria, Queensland and Western Australia.
Active Tree Services C