Sec. 205. Study on modernizing wildfire response technologies
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The Secretaries shall conduct a study on— necessary improvements to radio communications systems and infrastructure during wildland fire or prescribed fire operations, including— an assessment of the quality and reliability of existing radio infrastructure; for any instance in which existing radio communications infrastructure has failed, an assessment of the impacts on forest management or wildfire response activities; a comparison of existing options to improve on-the-ground communications; and a cost analysis and estimated timeline to install the most feasible option identified under subparagraph (C); real-time or near-real-time situational awareness tools for operational firefighters, including— standards and requirements for such tools to ensure interoperability between Federal firefighting entities and applicable State, local, Tribal, or other partners; any requirements for additional remote sensing and mapping capabilities to fully leverage such situational awareness tools; and a cost comparison between commercially available systems and internally developed systems; and wildland fire predictive modeling, including— an analysis of the data required to reduce predictive error for existing or developing models; an analysis of computing needs to more swiftly or accurately model wildland fire using existing or developing models; the feasibility of using artificial intelligence for wildland fire modeling; and existing or developing wildland fire predictive models that could assist with establishing safe conditions for igniting a prescribed fire.
Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretaries shall submit to the congressional committees and make publicly available the results of the study conducted under subsection (a).