MRF was selected to create a web based GIS system for wildfire management for the Alberta government in July 2007. The project was completed in late 2008. Since 2009, MRF has been hosting this system and providing annual maintenance service to the Alberta Government.

The system is accessible by public and internal users. The system is entirely web based and therefore can be accessed by any user with an internet connection including field workers (fire fighters). 

The major tasks of the project:

§ Created a web based GIS system using Oracle 10G,R2; and MRF GISNet

§ Built several applications:

o Fire ban reporting, updating, and deleting toolset

o Public fire viewer through Google Maps

o Power line route assessment and reporting

o Industrial hazard reporting

o Wildfire GIS layers viewing and query

o Wildfire GIS viewer and data editor

§ Emailed new GIS feature layers to Alberta SRD using shapefiles from the MRF hosted AWS servers

§ Provided website hosting and website monitoring services

The following is a screenshot of the main page of the system:

This project has a public noticing system for fire bans and road closures. MRF uses Google Maps API to publish the fire bans and road closures to the public. The URL for the fire bans website is:

http://www.albertafirebans.ca/

Every fire ban or road closure is represented as a polygon. Detailed description of the fire ban or road closure is represented as a balloon on top of Google Maps. The polygons are stored in KMZ format so that Google Maps API can be used to display them. The following is a screenshot for the fireban / road closure noticing system: