A Web App to Report Fires and Protect Our Country Parks!
Everyone can help report fires early and save nature from wildfires.
We’re excited to launch RoboticsCats ReportFires last week! Thank you for all the user feedback and inputs over the past few days. Please find below some new frequently asked questions and their answers.
8. How can the web app ensure that people will pinpoint the exact fire locations?
No, we cannot.
ReportFires is a crowdsourcing app that relies on inputs from the public. Similar to a traditional telephone hotline, the system accuracy depends on the data correctness reported by users.
However, we believe our map-based GUI is better than a phone call to provide fire location information. The app also uses information about the device to verify user input.
We believe it is easier and faster to click on the map than describing the following in a call.
“I am now in Tokyo, my latitude is 35.700 and longitude is 139.779 respectively. I see some smoke about 3km away from my position in the southeast direction. Please send someone to check if there is a fire!”
9. How would ReportFires deal with false fire reports?
Similar to a traditional telephone hotline, the ReportFires web app is under the threat of false fire reports. We implement the following security controls to mitigate false fire reports:
- Role-based user privileges: Public Users are limited to report fire locations up to 5km from their locations and Registered Users are up to 15km respectively
- Audit trails: We track device location, IP address, and user agent when the user reports wildfire location. We block suspicious user locations and unknown user agents.
- Network and application security: We implement WAF (Web Application Firewall) to protect the web app. Our WAF will block bots and malicious hosts
- Data analytics: We use AI to identify and reject false fire reports
10. How can a Registered User change the password?
After Sign In, click “Member Center” at the top-right corner, then select Change Password.
11. What information is available at Stats for Registered Users?
Currently Stats provides:
- Information about the last 10 fire locations reported: date & time of report submission, latitude, longitude, city, and country
- Top 10 cities with the most reported fires in the past 24 hours
- Top 10 cities with the most reported fires in the past 7 days
We’re collecting user feedback. Your suggestions are highly appreciated!
12. What is the time zone of the date & time shown in the web app?
User’s location time zone.
13. How to use the Search location feature to report a fire?
You can search the location name (if any), or input the latitude and longitude coordinates.
14. I get the message “The website ‘reportfires.roboticscats.com’ would like to use your current location” when I visit reportfires.roboticscats.com. What should I do?
You should click “Allow”.
15. I get the “Error occurred. Error code: 1” when browsing reportfires.roboticscats.com and cannot use the app. Why and how to solve it?
It is because you didn’t click “Allow” when the browser asked you “The website ‘reportfires.roboticscats.com’ would like to use your current location”.
To solve it in iOS Safari: go to Settings > Safari > Clear History and Website.
To solve it in Android Chrome: go to Settings > Privacy > Clear browsing data > select “Last 24 Hours” or “Last 7 days”, click “Clear data”.
16. What can we do with the Phone icon?
You can click to make a standard PSTN (public switched telephone network) phone call to the local authority in your location. The following regions are supported:
(Regions: local authority hotline number)
Hong Kong: 999
Taiwan: 119
Indonesia: 112
Thailand: 1362
Japan: 119
Australia: 000
European Union: 112
Canada: 911
US: 911
Mexico: 00 800 46 23 63 46
Chile: 130
17. Can I use ReportFires anywhere?
Users cannot use ReportFires web app if Google Maps is blocked in their countries. Google is our technology partner. ReportFires is using the Google Maps API.
18. Who is StackPath?
StackPath is our technology partner. They are a global edge platform service provider headquartered in Texas, US. They provide Delivery, Security, Computing, and Monitoring services. We use StackPath WAF to protect ReportFires from layer 7 DDoS attacks, cross-site scripting, automated traffic (bots), SQL injection and OWASP top 10 threats.
19. How does RoboticsCats make money from ReportFires?
We’re not doing it for money.
ReportFires is a free web app and we develop it to help people (including ourselves) to provide wildfire locations to the local authorities.
We pay the development and operating expenses of the app. Our technology partners support us by providing free-tier services. We will use banner advertisement income to cover some expenses. Please contact us at info@roboticscats.com if you’re interested to support us!
We believe technology can help the world. We walk our talks.
Thank you for reading this article. I hope this FAQ Part 2 will help you using ReportFires. Please download our InsightFD brochure to learn more about our other products.
