News archive 2008

Satellite Asian forest fire detection

28 Aug 2008, PR 179/08

A forest fire and smoke pollution monitoring system for Asia is the latest King’s project to win funding from Innovation China-UK (ICUK).  Seven King’s projects have now successfully bid for grants from ICUK.



The latest is an award of £63,500 made to a project led by Martin Wooster, Professor of Earth Observation Science of the Department of Geography at King’s College London.

The project ‘Development of a geostationary forest fire monitoring and characterising system for China and the wider Asia region’ will allow the Chinese National Satellite Meteorological Centre access to the wild fire detection algorithms and software developed at King’s, and will enable the team to access real-time data from Chinese satellites in order to develop a forest fire monitoring system for China and Asia.

The data will also be sent back to the UK to act as a component of a ‘global’ fire emissions monitoring system being developed by King’s and collaborators for the purposes of air quality forecasting.

ICUK sponsors jointly funded collaborative research and partnerships between UK Partners and Chinese Universities and Research Institutes. Launched in November 2007, and managed on behalf of the King’s by King’s Business, the College has, to date, been awarded to seven King’s Proof of Concept projects and Partnership grants worth almost £300,000.

Geography postdoctoral scientist, Dr Weidong Xu, together with Dr Liqun Yang of King’s Business, played a critical role in securing the award, negotiating with the Chinese partners, translating material and organizing a trip to China to coordinate the proposal prior to its submission.

Global information system
Professor Wooster comments: ‘We are absolutely delighted to have won this ICUK money, which gives us access to Chinese satellite data that is vital for our long-term goal of building a geographic information system for estimating real-time atmospheric emissions from global wildfires.

'Though the funding is only for a year, we already have much of the software operating with European satellites through an existing NERC grant, and have a further years funding secured through an EU research project that will help build the global system.’

Other successful King’s bids from ICUK include:
• King’s and Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica: £83,000 for the development of a database of Chinese herbs and their use within traditional Chinese medicine, together with chemical data on and predicted biological activities of their constituents. (Professor Peter Hylands, Pharmacy)
• King’s and Tianjin University:  £70,000 for developing a new generation highly flexible anthropomorphic robotic hand. (Professor Jian Dai, Engineering)
• King’s:  £13,200 to partner with Hong Kong University to develop a new generation digital forensics software for fighting digital crimes. (Dr Richard Overill, Computer Sciences)
• King’s: £14,800 to partner with Jiangnan University to develop novel Optical Biosensor to monitor microbial loading in food and water. (Professor Peter Quinn, Biochemistry)



Notes to editors

King’s College London
King’s College London is one of the top 25 universities in the world (Times Higher 2007) and the fourth oldest in England. A research-led university based in the heart of London, King’s has 19,700 students from more than 140 countries, and 5,400 employees. King’s has an outstanding reputation for providing world-class teaching and cutting-edge research. The College is in the top group of UK universities for research earnings and has an annual income of approximately £400 million. An investment of £500 million has been made in the redevelopment of its estate.

King’s has a particularly distinguished reputation in the humanities, law, social sciences, the health sciences, natural sciences and engineering, and has played a major role in many of the advances that have shaped modern life, such as the discovery of the structure of DNA. It is the largest centre for the education of healthcare professionals in Europe and is home to five Medical Research Council Centres - more than any other university.

Professor Martin Wooster
Professor Wooster has led the study of global biomass burning activity using new satellite-based approaches. He has pioneered new methods to exploit data from earth observation satellites to quantify global ‘wildfire’ phenomena with new approaches. He was the King’s College London Young Researcher of the Year for 2007. http://www.kcl.ac.uk/schools/sspp/geography/people/acad/wooster/research.html

Innovation China UK (ICUK)
Innovation China UK (ICUK) is a joint initiative between HEFCE, the Department for Innovation, Universities & Skills, and the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology. ICUK is the first UK-China collaboration programme to promote joint innovation and knowledge transfer between British Universities and Chinese Universities and other National Research Institutes.   http://www.kcl.ac.uk/business/international/icuk/
Dr Liqun Yang of King’s Business coordinates the King’s ICUK applications. Tel 020 7848 6754, Email liqun.yang@kcl.ac.uk



Further information
Melanie Gardner, Senior Public Relations Officer, Public Relations Department, King’s College London. Tel: 020 7848 3073; email melanie.gardner@kcl.ac.uk




Next:
Review of the King's year
King’s shows way for London Leaders
2008 RAE results
£1.5m to study symmetries of the universe
Honorary recognition for King’s

Previous:
DoH funding for Palliative Care
HRH awards King's Prof water prize
£1million for innovative cardiac technology
King’s Olympic success
King’s aims for Olympic gold


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