A work of professor and researcher at the University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro de Portugal (UTAD), António Valente, resulted in a sensor device prepared to anticipate forest fire alerts. According to the researcher, "hardware modules that contain temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure and CO2 sensors and transmit data over a LoRaWAN wireless network."

According to device specialist LoRaWAN, "intelligent agriculture in general, but especially when agricultural fields are very heterogeneous, as is the case of the Douro Demarcated Region, requires a large number of sensors to obtain effective control and thus increase productivity." These are "low-cost sensors and essentially easy to install and maintain", and can be used to measure various environmental parameters such as "ground and air temperature, speed, gust and wind direction, soil water content, water tension and electrical conductivity, solar radiation, precipitation, atmospheric pressure and lightning count".

Thus, when a fire principle is detected, an effective communication network is triggered so that this fire is controlled as soon as possible. Already in the experimental phase of simulated application in strategic territories, it is expected to know soon its results, said the creators of the project.

In Brazil, the Amazon region was the hardest hit by fires between 2016 and 2021. According to the CNM, the biome suffered 47.1% of the fires in the period, followed by the Cerrado with 31.8% and the Atlantic Forest with 8.9%.

Source: Agrolink