A lesser-known effect of wildfires is the permanent change that can impact watershed areas. These changes might include land movements, loss of sediment filtering vegetation, and unwanted ash production. Ash swept into tributaries and reservoirs can feed algae responsible for production of cyanobacteria. Officials in Oregon expect this year’s unprecedented wildfires to cause turbidity problems for local utilities, as well as increased source water temperature, both of which are known causes for harmful algal blooms.

Satelytics’ customers in the utility and watershed sectors typically gather aerial imagery after fire events to verify infrastructure integrity and to assess environmental damage. Our artificial intelligence-assisted algorithms analyze data in infrared wavelengths to provide alerts, alarms, detections, and measurements to immediate threats and challenges — without unnecessarily putting employees in harm’s way.

After a wildfire has moved through a watershed, spring rains or snowmelt can carry uncovered soils, ash, and associated nutrients into tributaries and reservoirs — sometimes months after the event. Larger objects and debris are also loosened by fires and can damage reservoir infrastructure. These actions will likely drive numerous remediation projects for water managers who maintain reservoirs for recreational users and the populations reliant upon them for drinking water. This is where Satelytics steps up for our watershed customers with a suite of algorithms focused on identifying point sources of sedimentation, nutrient load, and even metals — allowing focused remediation at the earliest possible moment. Our land measurements can focus re-vegetation programs or identify subsidence around a waterbody.

These outputs can be sourced from one set of data and include:

Electric Utilities Condition of power poles and transmission towers Trees down in ROW and speciation Tree height and canopy measurements Bare soil and vegetation re-growth Land movements Heat as an indication of asset trouble

Water/Wastewater Turbidity Sediment loading and total suspended solids Nutrient loading, cyanobacteria, phosphorous, chlorophyll-a Surface land and water temperature Shoreline erosions Metals concentration Remediation and rehabilitation progress assessments

As seasons change, wildfire disaster response transitions to the rebuilding of infrastructure. For our watershed customers, however, the response is only just beginning. They now must focus on the secondary effects. Satelytics can help.

Contact us today to see how our tools can help you provide value to your stakeholders and keep your company in a brightly positive light!