To improve data flow and analysis in the coal fire fighting,
a PC-based monitoring and management information system (CoalMan)
was developed for the Fire Fighting Team of the Ningxia Autonomous
Region in China. CoalMan is programmed using Visual Basic for
the user interface and the for database management procedures.
ILWIS (Integrated Land and Water Information System, product of
ITC) is used for the GIS and remote sensing functions. It comprises
of the following main modules:
-
A database.
This is subdivided into a database of original data, a database
of processing results, a background tabular database, a meta-database
and data archives (Figure
1). The database contains of the following major data
types:
- maps (geology, topography),
- digital elevation model,
- satellite images (Landsat TM including night-time thermal
images, SPOT, IRS-1C, ERS),
- airborne thermal infrared images and aerial photographs,
- data of field measurements and observations (surface and
subsurface temperature, geology, mining, etc.) in tabular
format,
- reports, fire fighting and prevention plans,
- field photographs.
-
Standard database management functions.
The user is able to enter, manage and analyse tabular data.
-
Database integrity management functions.
These functions help the user to maintain the integrity of
the tabular and the map database and to register all the data
objects in the meta-database.
-
GIS and image processing functions.
CoalMan provides functions for input, display and analysis
of maps and remote sensing images with their attribute data.
Although the full functionality of ILWIS is available, the
proper use of them will need special knowledge about GIS and
image processing. Therefore, besides the access to the full
functionality of ILWIS, some tailor-made special procedures
and models will be available too for the less trained users.
-
Special procedures and models.
These tools are mostly to be used in the routine of the fire
fighting team and do not require special GIS or modelling knowledge:
- Quantification of the parameters of coal fires from satellite
images (coal fire analysis tools).
- The most important parameters are the size and depth of
coal fires and the amount of coal burnt. The determination
of them is based on pre-processing a selected part of the
satellite image (thermal band of Landsat TM) and then applying
a numerical model. These tools are used for the detection
of new coal fires too.
- Mapping of coal fire risk and hazard.
- Map algebra is to be used for the mapping. The system
will show some examples on how numerical modelling can be
used for mapping the distribution of air pollution caused
by the coal fires.
- Monitoring the development of coal fires and the results
of fire fighting measures.
- Time series analysis tools supports the monitoring. The
basic input for the monitoring is the results of the analysis
of individual remote sensing images. By comparing the images
the development and the movement of the fires, as well as
the success of the fire fighting measures can be monitored.
Special functions are needed to handle and display 3D data in
CoalMan. The basic data structure is two-dimensional (since CoalMan
uses ILWIS as the GIS software), but the information about the
depth of the coal fires is important for the fire fighters. Therefore,
special procedures are worked out to handle a series of two-dimensional
maps with elevation attributes of the geological layers to represent
the three-dimensional geological setting. Cross-sections can be
generated about the coal seams with a corresponding thermal profile
taken from a satellite image (Figure
2 and 3). The accuracy of the representation is defined by
the accuracy of the individual maps: the coal seam maps are compiled
from bore hole data with an average separation distance of 500-1000
metres, using the interpolation functions of ILWIS, whilst the
thermal profile is taken from Landsat TM band 6 images with 120
m pixel size.
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