Case Study: Salo Sciences improves wildfire hazard mapping with Planet

A Dynamic Wildfire Hazard Mapping System to Empower Agile Emergency Services & Forest Management

The customer, Salo Sciences, a conservation technology company, faced the challenge of California's outdated and unreliable wildfire hazard maps, which hindered effective fire prevention. In partnership with the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, they collaborated with vendor Planet to utilize its satellite imagery and Planet Surface Reflectance Basemaps to develop a novel data-driven monitoring system for the state.

The solution, the California Forest Observatory, leveraged Planet’s high-resolution Basemaps and artificial intelligence to create dynamic, real-time maps of wildfire hazards and vegetation fuels at an unprecedented tree-level scale. This provided the state with the accurate, detailed information needed to improve evacuation planning, execute precision forest treatments, and enhance overall community and forest resilience against increasingly destructive megafires.

Salo Sciences

John Battles

Professor of Forest Ecology