Francis Oppong, PhD
Project lead
Assistant professor and researcher in mechanical engineering, leading the design of intelligent systems for disaster prevention.
Initiative
Africa FireShield
Developing an AI-powered early warning system to predict and mitigate wildfire risks in Africa.
Satellite and climate data fusionGround-truth reports from citizensEarly alerts for communities
About the initiative
What the initiative is building and why.
Africa FireShield is an open-science initiative building an AI-powered early warning system to predict, monitor, and mitigate wildfire risks across the African continent. By fusing satellite imagery, climate data, and ground-truth observations from citizen contributors, the project develops predictive models that alert local authorities and communities days before high-risk fire events — protecting biodiversity, farmland, and lives.
What is at stake
- 1Biodiversity
- 2Farmland
- 3Lives and livelihoods
Approach
From observations to early warnings, in three steps.
- 1
Observe
Satellite imagery, climate and fuel data, plus ground-truth reports from citizen contributors.
- 2
Predict
Machine-learning models estimate fire risk days ahead and flag high-risk areas.
- 3
Alert
Early warnings reach local authorities and communities before fires spread.
Team
The people leading the initiative.
Laurent Kouadio
AI & geodata collaborator
Brings geophysical data analysis and AI modelling to assess environmental risk factors.
Gallery
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Get involved
FireShield is in its conceptual phase. Researchers, engineers and organisations working on wildfire, remote sensing or disaster risk in Africa are welcome to help shape its design.