ORIENTAL: Application of Wireless Sensor Networks for Forest Surveillance and Early Fire Detection

Forest fires are one of the most important factors that threaten the ecological balance in the countries that are affected by the Mediterranean climate such as Turkey. Forests, that constitute 1⁄4 of the total area of our country, are in great danger of fire, especially during summer period. In 74,294 forest fires, we lost 1,630,000 hectares of forest area since 1937. This area is three times larger than the area of the city of Istanbul. Especially, there is a steep increase in the number of annual forest fires during last decade. Today, since %80 of the annual forest fires occur during the 5-month period between June and October, the forest fire fighting activities are intensified during this period, and minimized during the rest of the year due to the budget issues.