Research Infrastructure: RII Track 1: Integrating Montana's Environmental Research with Smart Sensors (IMERSS)

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Prescribed fire is increasingly being employed across the western U.S., as it is needed to mitigate and manage wildfire risk. This "Integrating Montana's Environmental Research with Smart Sensors" (IMERSS) project will improve the understanding of prescribed fire dynamics and the impact of prescribed fire on Montana’s communities and public lands by producing new sensor technologies to characterize fuel types and smoke emissions. The novel, smart optical sensor systems will contribute to the region’s economic infrastructure through partnerships with Montana’s expanding optics-based industry. Outcomes of IMERSS research will enable managers of prescribed fires to develop and refine strategies for deploying prescribed fires effectively to mitigate wildfire risk, a benefit that will extend to local and federal agencies tasked with land management and wildfire mitigation across the Western U.S. The broader impacts activities of IMERSS include an extensive internship and workforce development plan, integration of community and Tribal college participants, and a focus on K-12 education and outreach to the community. The project will create well-defined STEM professional development pathways and broaden participation across Montana in environmental, social, and engineering research. IMERSS will be administered by Montana State University in collaboration with six other institutions: University of Montana, Montana Technological University, Salish Kootenai College, Little Big Horn College, Flathead Valley Community College.IMERSS research will focus on: 1) how prescribed fire’s energy and emissions depend on fuel properties, topography, and environmental conditions, and 2) how smoke emissions from prescribed fires affect individuals and communities. To answer these questions, IMERSS will develop a new generation of smart optical sensors that couple emerging engineering technologies with advances in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML). IMERSS will then deploy the new instruments to measure prescribed fire behavior in real time, acquiring spatially accurate, real-time data about fuels, smoke aerosol type, smoke plume height, smoke trajectory, and social acceptance of prescribed fire and smoke. The acquisition of this data will allow managers of prescribed fires to make better-informed decisions about when and where to burn, and for how long. These decisions can be shared with individuals and Montana’s community leaders to minimize the adverse effects of prescribed fire. Thus, IMERSS will produce scientifically grounded strategies for selecting the locations and the timing of prescribed fire events to maximize their benefits and mitigate wildfire and smoke risk. In doing so, IMERSS will build capacity in Montana by forging ties between researchers in environmental science, remote sensing, optical engineering, AI and ML, and social science. Four new faculty hires are planned in the first two years of the project, all in AI and ML. The core research program is well integrated with education, workforce development, and diversity plans that span academic, Tribal, public, and private sectors.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.