(COLORADO SPRINGS) — As fires continue to burn across Colorado, emergency leaders in the Pikes Peak Region are using a new AI driven software to help them predict disaster scenarios like wildfires and floods.
Colorado Springs is the first region in Colorado to adopt this new technology, and leaders say the tool can help find the best routes to get people away from fast-moving natural disasters threatening urban areas.
“We are the first or one of the first to utilize this and the first on the front range,” said Andrew Notbohm, Regional Emergency Management & Recovery Director.
No one should die in a disaster–these are the first words you will see on the website of the company behind the new technology now used in El Paso County.
“We can utilize our own local information, put it in the system and run scenarios,” said Notbohm.
The Pikes Peak Regional Office of Emergency Management recently purchased the tech from Ladris, to help plan for emergency evacuations.
“We have a very complex wildland urban interface. We have multiple military installations, and so it’s really important to have a platform that’s, one, user friendly, and then also has our local data integrated in it,” said Notbohm.
The technology uses weather conditions, population, traffic volumes, and wildfire risk to create plans and models for the worst-case scenarios.
“We’re able to select areas within our community at risk, run scenarios of how long it’s going to take to evacuate, analyze those patterns, and then we can adjust our strategies based on the information we get,” said Notbohm.
First responders hope it will help them make timely decisions during natural disasters.
“The majority of it was paid through a Colorado Internet Portal Authority grant called SIPA, which contributed about $95,000 to $130,000 contract that goes for 18 months,” said Notbohm.
Officials say more than 50 local agencies, including fire departments and police, have been trained on Ladris so far, and one of the biggest concerns in our area is traffic.
“That’s going to be amplified if everybody within your neighborhood is asked or ordered to evacuate,” said Notbohm.
More than 10 years ago, traffic was an issue during the Waldo Canyon Fire as people tried to evacuate.
The new AI technology looks to get ahead of this problem and create a virtual representation of traffic patterns based on population and vehicles on the road to hopefully identify bottlenecks and choke points.
“An area where we have a number of people trying to get to a destination and where there is a time where you’d have to actually wait to get to safety,” said Notbohm.
El Paso County is three months in to a nine-month planning process to integrate the new technology. Emergency leaders also say they want to be prepared for anything at any time, which is why they are also partnering with meteorologists in the region.
About The Author
