The B105 Electronic Systems Lab group from Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM) was involved in a research project that aimed to safeguard our forests through the development of new technologies that allow us to minimize the risk of forest fire and mitigate environmental damage. This group was responsible for the development of wireless sensor network capable of measuring environmental variables and to provide real time data. These characteristics can be useful for the organisms in charge of fighting fire.



Wildland fires are one of the major environmental issues in our country because of their both geographical and climatic variables. In 2015, there were almost 12,000 fires in Spain and over 100,000 hectares were burnt, according to Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Environment (Spain).



In order to prevent these disasters and to make safer and efficient fire extinction, researchers have developed PROMETEO which is a multidisciplinary system with data from diverse sources (satellites, aerial means and ground sensors) that helps prevent and extinguish wildland fires.



PROMETEO is a national R&D project promoted by Centre for the Development of Industrial Technology (CDTI) with a consortium of 15 companies and other public research organizations from diverse Spanish universities. The group of B105 Electronic Systems Lab, from School of Telecommunications Engineering at UPM, along with GIICA group from Universidad Politécnica de Valencia (UPV) and ISDEFE Company were in charge of the development of a ground sensor network.



This network consists of small sensor nodes of low consumption capable of measuring environmental variables such as temperature, soil moisture and wind speed and direction. Besides, these nodes are equipped with a small processor and a wireless interface that transmit their measurements.



Once the nodes are deployed on the ground, they automatically create a network that routes the wireless measures and messages towards the central node. After adding data from all sensors, the central node sends this information to the control center. The ground data coming from other sources (satellite, historical weather data, terrain models and fire behavior) is added to the control center.

This data can be used in two different stages by the bodies responsible for fighting fires. Firstly, the prevention stage allows us to know the locations where a fire is more likely to occur. By using this data, we can take action to avoid fires and keep updated the ground models. Secondly, if in spite of these actions a fire occurs, the data provided by the system can be useful during the extinction stage, since the system provides real time data about the spread of fire. Thus, the extinction works are safer and more efficient for the team in charge of extinguishing the fire.



The research work carried out in relation to the sensor ground network has been published by Journal of Sensors.