Jorge Saavedra: Monitoring and Fighting Forest Fires Using Remote Sensing
In this episode of Smart Forests Radio, we talk with Jorge Saavedra. Jorge is a Forestry Engineer with a Diploma in Geomatics and Satellite Technology, Master in Remote Sensing and Head of the Department of Development and Research in Forest Fires at the National Forestry Corporation of Chile (CONAF). Jorge has more than 15 years of experience in Fire Management, specializing in analysis and planning, use of geotechnologies, training, research and development, risk assessment and analysis. His skills also include quantification of avoided damage in forest fires, and he has held positions ranging from brigadier to detection aircraft technician. He is also an adjunct professor in undergraduate and graduate courses at the Universidad Mayor de Chile. In this interview he tells us about the role of CONAF's Development and Research Department, which has been to analyze in a transversal way the whole institution to make the work more efficient and understand the reasons for the behavior of fires in the Chilean territory . For this, several tools have been generated to monitor and prevent forest fires, such as the Forecast System, the National Risk Map and the Red Button. More information about Jorge's work can be found at https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jorge-Saavedra-15.
Interviewers: Pablo González Rivas, Paula Tiara Torres and Jennifer Gabrys
Producer: Harry Murdoch
Language note: This interview takes place in Spanish.
This radio episode has been produced by the Smart Forests project, funded by the European Research Council. Smart Forests is led by Professor Jennifer Gabrys and is based in the Department of Sociology at the University of Cambridge.
Header image: Jorge Saavedra in his CONAF brigade suit, fighting a forest fire, retrieved September 3, 2024 from https://wildfirex.cl/jorge-andres-saavedra-saldias/
Smart Forests Atlas materials are free to use for non-commercial purposes (with attribution) under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license. To cite this radio episode: Saavedra, Jorge, Pablo González Rivas, Paula Tiara Torres and Jennifer Gabrys "Jorge Saavedra: Monitoring and Fighting Forest Fires Using Remote Sensing", Smart Forests Atlas (2024), https://atlas.smartforests.net/en/radio/jorge-saavedra. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.13789230.