Automatic warning system used in forest fire prevention and fighting

A member of the group author is receiving forest fire alarm messages from the automatic system.

Technology is put into forest fire warnings 

Recently, the group of authors has conducted a rehearsal at the garden area behind the Campus of the University of Forestry in Dong Nai (located in Trang Bom Town, Trang Bom District) to evaluate effectiveness of the research.

A bunch of trees and hay was burned by the Provincial Forest Protection for drill. After a few minutes, the automatic equipment system for early detection and notification of forest fires recognized the first images of the smoke, integrated the data and transmitted the fire message to a series of emails and personal phones of the functional force. Upon receiving the news, the forest rangers were instructed to put out the fire, after less than 30 minutes, the entire fire was extinguished.

According to Assoc. Prof. Dr. Tran Quang Bao, Dong Nai is the province with the largest forest area in the Southeast, with a long dry season (from December of the previous year to April of the following year). Meanwhile, the forest area with high and very high fire risk accounts for about 8%, with more than 15.3 thousand hectares. The main causes of forest fires are usually weather, people burning up their fields, agricultural waste, etc. Patrolling and early detection of forest fires is very hard, forest rangers are often required to stay on watchtowers, and sometimes late detection causes the fires to spread, affecting economy as well as threatening forest resources.

Facing that fact, the research team decided to study, design and establish an automatic equipment system for early detection and notification of forest fires with the desire to contribute to protecting forests, together with the  forest rangers and related forces to direct a plan to quickly extinguish fires and minimize damage caused by them.

The above model has been tested and operated by the team since March 2020 in some areas with high risk of forest fires, including Suoi Linh Forest Protection Station (Dong Nai Nature - Cultural Reserve) with an tracked area of over 1.3 thousand hectares; Division 2, Management Board of Protection Forest in Tan Phu District (in Gia Canh Commune, Dinh Quan District) with the monitored forest area of about 2.9 thousand hectares and at the Forestry University branch in Dong Nai. Monitoring the operation of the system shows that the fire alarm results are 100% accurate, quickly detecting smoke and flames from arising for less than 10 minutes.

In addition, the research has built a software to process information, detect and transmit forest fire information from the forest fire monitoring stations and information pages of the province; at the same time, established a map of forest fire zoning, terrain conditions, traffic, etc. for effective forest fire monitoring, thereby proposing an installation location of the system in 24 zones.

M.S Nguyen Trong Cuong, Deputy Head of Administration - General Department of Forestry University, a member of the group, advised that the system for processing information, dectecting and transmitting alarms of forest fires is automatically designed. On the basis of the solar battery source with the battery system, an automatic camera will process and collect fire images, then transmit the data to the server and finally to the relevant forces via email and SMS.

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Tran Quang Bao proposed: “The Department of Science and Technology and relevant authorities should continue to support and create conditions for the project to soon be replicated in practice, practically contributing to forest fire prevention and fighting in the whole province”.

 The system is expected to be replicated

Dr. Bui Viet Hai, former lecturer at Ho Chi Minh City University of Agriculture and Forestry highly appreciated the practicality of the research as well as the researches and contributions in terms of technological solutions for forest fire prevention and fighting.

According to Dr. Bui Viet Hai, detecting fire in mountainous and remote areas is extremely difficult. Or, once discovered, the fires have spread, causing heavy economic damage, destroying resources, and sometimes threatening people's lives. Compared with traditional methods like the forest rangers on watchtowers and patrolling, detecting fires thanks to automatic technology is much faster, more accurate and easier.

Therefore, Dr. Bui Viet Hai also suggested that the team continue to monitor the system to overcome the shortcomings (if any), and soon bring the system into service of forest fire prevention in the whole province in the coming time.

The research topic on the automatic equipment system for early detection and notification of forest fires of the authors also received high appreciation from Dr. Nguyen Hoang Hao, Deputy Director of Dong Nai Nature - Cultural Reserve, Member of the Research Evaluation Board. "The team should continue to monitor and improve to soon put the system into operation, contributing to forest protection", suggested Dr. Hao.

Meanwhile, Dr. Nguyen Thi Hoang, Director of the Department of Science and Technology, asked the team to continue to review and complete the report on results of research, design and installation of the automatic equipment system for early detection and notification of forest fires for high-risk areas for early completion and handover to beneficiaries.

Ha Giang