Agadir 24 | Agadir24
Identical media sources revealed that Morocco will receive a new Canadir aircraft in the coming days, within the framework of the request it submitted years ago to obtain three aircraft of this type.
The same sources reported that this aircraft specialized in extinguishing fires, which is currently in Portugal, will be the sixth that the Kingdom receives from the Canadian factory, Cascade Aerospace.
of the Royal Air Force.
The arrival of the new plane comes in anticipation of fires that could break out during the coming summer, in light of the high temperatures and the continuing repercussions of drought in most regions of the Kingdom.
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Allocating 200 million dirhams to combat forest fires
The National Agency for Water and Forests has allocated a financial envelope of 200 million dirhams for the prevention of forest fires during the 2023 season, which will be used to provide equipment and means to limit the outbreak of these fires.
In addition, the National Agency for Water and Forests, in collaboration with relevant partners, has developed a new master plan for the integrated management of forest fires for the period 2023-2033, which defines the actions to be implemented during the next decade to prevent and combat forest fires, taking into account the expected impacts of climate change.
The aforementioned plan includes strengthening monitoring patrols for monitoring and early warning, opening and maintaining forest paths and forest firebreaks, preparing water points with maintenance and establishing new observation towers, in addition to expanding forest forestry and rehabilitating paths, as well as purchasing new vehicles for initial intervention.
Developing an information system based on artificial intelligence
Taking into account the developments taking place in the world today, the National Agency for Water and Forests has strengthened the use of new technologies to monitor forest fires, by developing a new information system that relies on artificial intelligence algorithms and big data to create a map of forest fire risks and trigger alerts for appropriate interventions accordingly.
This system provides, according to the agency, a daily map of the degrees of fire risk and spread with very high accuracy, accompanied by the possibility of interpreting the risks, to provide valuable information to the control teams already in the field, taking into account factors such as climate changes, satellite images, and social and economic information, The nature and condition of the forest cover.
It should be noted that forest fires for the 2022 season in Morocco recorded nearly 500 fires that destroyed 22,762 hectares of forest area, 37 percent of these burned areas are secondary herbs and seasonal plants.
Depending on the geographical distribution of the areas affected by the fire, in the last season, the Tangier-Tetouan-Al Hoceima region comes at the forefront of the areas affected by the fire with 188 fires, which destroyed 18,704 hectares, followed by the Fez-Meknes region, with 99 fires that swept 1,775 hectares of the forested area.
