Kerlink, NetOP Partner to Enable Wildfire Prevention System

Kerlink, a specialist in solutions dedicated to the Internet of Things (IoT), and NetOP Technology, which designs and produces tailor-made IoT solutions for multiple verticals and applications, have announced their collaboration on a wildfire-prevention system that warns public officials when weather conditions predict fires.

This summer of 2021, 187,114 fires have so far been recorded across the globe, further underlining the urgency of acting on global warming. Extreme temperatures and droughts have fueled fires in Russia, Greece, Sicily, Algeria, Tunisia, the Amazon, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Canada and the United States, particularly in California, where the Dixie Fire has been burning since mid-July and has ravaged more than 200,000 hectares. The previous record was set in September 2020 with 138,680 fires, i.e. almost 50,000 fewer.

To help identify risk areas, the LoRaWAN®-based system combines Kerlink Wirnet gateways with NetOP Technology Forest Capsules that measure meteorological conditions such as humidity, temperature, CO2 and the concentration of volatile organic compounds (VOC), using built-in sensors.

The long-range wireless device detects, collects and reports dangerous conditions even in very remote locations via Kerlink’s LoRaWAN gateways, while its AI capabilities identify likely fire outbreaks with their exact GPS location.

The system’s intelligent dashboard features an integrated AI layer, sensors with machine-learning functions, forest fire prediction, on-line risk calculation, smart live maps of terrain, real-time heat maps and alarm scenarios.

“Our technology and Kerlink’s very wide LoRaWAN coverage allow forest and wildlands managers to expand their monitoring far beyond traditional capabilities of smoke detection and early fire observation,” said Olcay Taysi, co-founder of NetOP Technology. “By predicting where fires are likely to start, the Forest Capsule system helps officials spend their monitoring and surveillance activities more effectively.”

“This solution delivers on the global scale by helping to anticipate climate change consequences potentially resulting in vast fires, and locally it protects wildlife and enables organizations to conserve water and other resources used in fighting fires,” said Romain Weryk, Kerlink key account manager. “Kerlink’s expertise on gateways and communication management is widely recognized for the robust performance those features deliver in diverse and challenging environments, and they make Kerlink an obvious partner for this world’s-first, IoT wildfire-prevention application.”

NetOP Technology also has been Kerlink’s distributor since July 2018.