IOT Based Forest Fire Detection System Using Arduino Nano

Abstract 

Forest fires are common hazards in forests in summer when the vegetation is dry and flammable that affect the local Wildlife as well as the Environment and in general the entire eco system around it. However, the damage impact could be reduced if a robust system could be deployed in forest areas to detect the fire and alert to Fire extinguishing authority to take immediate action in case of a fire. In this project, the intention is to build a Forest fire detection system using IoT (specifically from thingspeak.com) which would detect the fire and send an emergency alert to Authority through IoT through real time data collection. Here a GSM/GPRS module is used to communicate with IoT sever. Since forests are generally remote areas and protected by the government, the availability of network signals is close to non-existent with only basic 2G connectivity at most. Hence a 2G network is preferable to communicate with the server and would also help in reducing costs for potential upscaling of this project over a larger area to improve accuracy and reliability with further applications to predict the spread of a recently started fire and calculating efficient methods of extinguishing it.


Introduction

Forest fires are a regular phenomenon in our country often observed during the fire season. A number of 37,059 fires were detected in year 2018. Every year large areas of forests are affected by fires of varying intensity and extent. Based on the forest inventory records, 54.40% of forests in India are exposed to occasional fires, 7.49% to moderately frequent fires and 2.405% to high incidence levels while 35.71% of India’s forests have not yet been exposed to fires of any real significance. Precious forest resources including carbon locked in the biomass is lost due to forest fires every year, which adversely impact the flow of goods and services from forests. Satellite based remote sensing technology and GIS tools have been effective in better prevention and management of fires through creation of early warning for fire prone areas, monitoring fires on real time basis and estimation of burnt scars.

Based on the analysis of satellite pictures, it estimated Nepal emitted nearly 18 mega tonnes of carbon in the same period, the highest since 2016 when it emitted 27 mega tonnes of carbon. Nearly 20 people have been reportedly killed by the fires in Uttarakhand and Nepal. Hundreds of thousands of hectares of forests are believed to have been razed although official figures are yet to be published. 

While forest fires are a natural phenomenon it is incredibly rare for the first spark to be a result of natural causes. Most often it is due to human error or negligence that a fire starts in dry regions of a forest and grows exponentially larger from there on out. 

In retrospect nothing much can be done to avoid the phenomenon of forest fires, but in our project, we aim to reduce the damages to property and life and most importantly to the environment by using IoT applications for monitoring a potential fire and signalling the authorities to evacuate nearby areas and the fire department to mobilise their resources to combat the fire as quickly and efficiently as possible.

The project proposed is economical, efficient and with the attachment of a small (>10v) solar panel can run autonomously 24/7 through out the year without any need for technical maintenance making it very reliable too.





Topics Learned

  • Effect of forest fires on society and environment

  • Economic damages as a result of forest fires

  • Struggles of remote communities receiving no warnings and the tragic loss of life 

  • IoT application of remote real time monitoring

  • Arduino nano implementation with gsm module

  • Versatility of C programming in coding of the Arduino

  • Simplicity of implementation of real time monitoring systems


Open Ended Question

How to limit the socio-economic and environmental damages done by forest fires by implementation of faster response times? 


Skills Required

  • C/C++

  • Understanding working of SIM800L

  • Connecting project module to ThingSpeak Cloud


Proposed System/Solution

The block diagram for the proposed system is as shown below:

The infrared flame sensing module is connected to the Arduino nano that in case of a fire transmits the

data to the Arduino that a fire has started. This signal is then transferred to the SIM800L GSM module

that transmits the data via 2G carrier to a cloud server which can be accessed on an IoT monitoring

website (ThingSpeak.com). The entire system is capable to run in two modes- real time mode, where

the data is constantly being transmitted and alert mode where the data is sent only when a fire is

detected. In this project, the focus is going to be mainly on real time mode for simplicity’s sake. During

the demonstration of this project a portable dc supply and non-rechargeable batteries are going to be

used but in practice, in the forests, a small solar panel will be attached and the batteries will be

swapped out for rechargeable ones. All circuit components are encased in an air tight box with a small

hole provision for the antenna of the GSM module. The code to set up the Arduino is done in C. The

cloud platform used for the monitoring of data will be free of cost in this case with the provision of

MathWorks campus account but potentially setting up a system for a large scale forest would be

economically feasible.


System Requirement Specifications

  • Arduino Nano

  • 3.7V Li-ion Battery

  • Flame sensor

  • 2G unlimited SIM card

  • SIM800L GPS/GPRS Module\

  • Input voltage: 3.4V - 4.2V

  • Interface: UART and AT commands

  • Supported frequencies: Quad Band (850 / 950 / 1800 /1900 MHz)

  • SIM card socket: micro SIM slot

  • Antenna connector: IPX

  • Working temperature range: -40 do + 85 ° C





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