10 Jul How IoT helps prevent forest fires in summer

The arrival of summer and consecutive heatwaves subject forest lands to extreme risk. Traditionally, firefighting has been reactive, activating emergency protocols only once smoke columns are already visible from watchtowers or satellites. However, in a climate change scenario, winning minutes against the clock is the difference between a controllable outbreak and a devastating wildfire.

Fortunately, digital technology is changing the rules of the game. The deployment of the internet of things (IoT) in natural environments is allowing us to shift from suppression to prediction, transforming the way we protect our forests during the most critical months of the year.

Early detection: Identifying the danger before seeing the smoke 

The fundamental pillar for preventing forest fires with digital technology is invisible environmental monitoring. Through the strategic distribution of smart sensors in tree canopies or the undergrowth, civil protection services can obtain a real-time X-ray of the forest’s condition.

These small devices constantly measure critical variables such as:

• Anomalous temperature increases.
• Drastic drops in relative air and soil humidity.
• Concentrations of carbon dioxide ($CO_2$) and carbon monoxide ($CO$) derived from the earliest stages of combustion.

Thanks to this analytical approach, the system can issue an automated alert the very instant a physical hotspot begins, long before the fire is large enough to generate a visible smoke column on the surface.

LPWAN networks: Powering smart sensors in isolated environments 

Deploying hardware in the middle of a natural park poses an obvious challenge: the lack of conventional power outlets and electrical grids. For the internet of things to be viable in the heart of nature, devices must be energy-autonomous and capable of sending information over long distances.

As we previously analysed in depth in our article on How LPWAN networks drive the massive Internet of Things, Low Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN) technologies are the ideal solution for this challenge. These networks prioritise efficiency and range over bandwidth, allowing smart sensors to operate in rural or wooded areas for more than 10 years on a single battery. By transmitting only lightweight telemetry data (such as temperature or gas alerts), they avoid frequency saturation and guarantee robust connectivity in remote, hard-to-reach areas.

Rural fibre optic Backhaul: The highway for alerts 

It is of little use for a smart sensor to detect a fire outbreak in milliseconds if the alert cannot leave the forest due to poor coverage. The wireless antennas and base stations that collect signals from forest detection devices need a high-capacity evacuation route to emergency control rooms.

This is where transport infrastructure or backhaul comes into play. It is vital that base stations and mobile phone towers located in rural environments are connected directly to a fibre optic backbone. Only a high-capacity physical connection guarantees that the millions of small messages emitted by the forestry internet of things are unified and travel instantly to data centres, enabling immediate decision-making by forestry brigades.

Summer resilience: Infrastructure proof against heatwaves 

The month of July usually records the most extreme temperatures of the year, testing not only nature but also technological equipment itself. To guarantee the continuity of a service as critical as fire prevention, telecommunications infrastructure must be designed under strict criteria of thermal resilience.

Redundancy against climate stress 

Underground ducting and network nodes must feature redundant and meshed architectures. If an extreme heatwave affects network performance or a fire physically cuts a connection line, smart systems must be capable of automatically rerouting data traffic through alternative geographical paths. The safety of our forests cannot depend on a single cable.

lyntia: Protecting the natural environment from the ground up 

For systems aiming to prevent forest fires to work seamlessly, the foundation of connectivity must be flawless. At lyntia, we have a neutral fibre optic network of over 56,000 kilometres with extensive penetration in rural areas and peripheral nodes across the Iberian Peninsula.

We provide the backbone support and high-capacity backhaul needed to connect internet of things networks, ensuring that every alert generated by smart sensors reaches its destination immediately, safely, and reliably. We protect digital infrastructure to help safeguard our natural heritage.