Coal fires in Northern China and operationalization of '4S' techniques

Sustainable development of society, resource exploitation and economic development require a balance between reasonable utilisation of available resources and the environment for human beings. China has the richest coal resources in the world. However, these are seriously endangered by coal fires, which cause deleterious effects on the environment In recent years, there has been an increasing concern about coal fires, all around the world. Research on the detection of coal fires has been carried out in Xinjiang and Ningxia Autonomous Regions of Northwest China. This has shown the significant possibilities of remote sensing for dynamic monitoring, As a fire-fighting program is put into operation, an operational system for data management and auxiliary decision-making for the fire fighters is urgently required. Remote .sensing, global positioning system, geographical information system and expert systems (called the '4S' in Chinese as each of these four technologies start with the same character in Chinese) are the data collection and management techniques those can be used for fire fighting. This paper discusses the present situation of the coal fires and tbe primary reasons for the fire development in Northwest China. The basic requirements of the end-user for fire fighting are analysed with regards to haz.ard reduction such as putting out the fires, environmental rehabilitation and tbe administration in relation to the reduction activities. In order to provide a decision-supported information management system for the fire-fighting program, the professional expertise in relation to JD monitoring and visualisation, methods of reasonable assessments and effective information management should be well assembled, with GIS support, as an operational support system. Additionally, sufficlent administrative support. is also needed for the successful operation of fire fighting.