A High-Tech System Monitors Our Forest: Development by IQ Technologies at Technology and Science Park Quickly Detects Fires

The great fire in Jüterbog, an hour’s drive from Berlin, once again demonstrated the destructive power of fire. Brandenburg is affected by more wildfires than any other federal state. There were 523 last year alone. IQ Technologies for Earth and Space GmbH, based in Adlershof, makes it their mission to quickly identify these in order to keep damage as low as possible.

The company, whose core competencies lie in wireless communications, has been developing the early detection system (AWFS) “IQ FireWatch” for forest fires for 20 years. Its core technology was developed in the 1990s by the German Aerospace Center.

IQ FireWatch will be installed this year in Germany’s seventh federal state. There has also been one in Berlin since 2021. It is located in Köpenick in the Müggelberge. Of the more than 180 sites in Germany, 105 of the sensor systems are at the wildfire hotspot in Brandenburg alone, and they cover 95 percent of the forest area there.

However, in recent years, other countries have also come to appreciate the advantages of technology from Adlershof. FireWatch system is now installed in California USA, in Kazakhstan, Lithuania, Portugal, Spain, Albania, Montenegro, Argentina, Chile and Colombia. Early detection of forest fires works as follows: the system detects smoke and heat in all weather conditions almost everywhere within a distance of 20 km, and under optimal conditions up to 60 km. This is done using a multispectral sensor. The rotating head of the IQ FireWatch rotates completely on its axis every four to six minutes, creating a panoramic image.

The high art is to recognize the smoke of a forest fire even in fog and not sound an alarm if, say, a vehicle in agriculture stirs up dust in a field. The system could also be modified in such a way that power plants, for example, where chimneys smoke regularly, are deliberately left out of the monitoring area. Years ago, the company also started incorporating artificial intelligence into early detection. According to Dr. Kurt Winter, who comes from Graz, Austria and has been Managing Director of IQ Technologies since April 2019, he was able to significantly increase recognition accuracy and at the same time reduce the error rate. It rarely happens that firefighters are sent out by mistake, once or at most three times a year.

The system is usually installed on old fire watch towers, as people used to monitor the area with binoculars. However, since the towers are slowly deteriorating, more and more mobile phone towers are now being used for installation. If the tech detects a plume of smoke, it is automatically sent to a wildfire control center. “There are people who used to stand on the towers and know the area really well,” says Curt Winter. If the message is verified by the alleged operators, firefighters are called immediately afterwards. “Normally, you should be able to spot the fire in five minutes. We need three minutes,” the general manager confirms. The fire brigade must go within a quarter of an hour after the start of the fire and arrive at the place of the fire no later than half an hour later. “There are very few companies around the world that can do that. With FireWatch, we’re in an extreme position,” says Winter.

The fact that there are more forest fires in Brandenburg than anywhere else in Germany is partly due to the dry, sandy soil, the widespread coniferous trees which contain a lot of resin and therefore burn easily, and the areas contaminated with ordnance. The most common cause is arson. According to forest fire protection expert Professor Dr. Michael Müller of TU Dresden, 99 percent of fires are put out within two hours thanks to a well-functioning system and process chain. This would not be possible without the early detection system developed at Adlershof.

More info at www.iq-firewatch.com/de