Forest Fire Modeling and Early Detection using Wireless Sensor Networks

Early detection of forest fires is the primary way of minimizing their damages. We present the design of a wireless sensor network for early detection of forest fires. We first present the key aspects in modeling forest fires according to the Fire Weather Index (FWI) System which is one of the most comprehensive forest fire danger rating systems in North America. Then, we model the forest fire detection problem as a node k-coverage problem (k ≥ 1) in wireless sensor networks. We propose approximation algorithms for the node k-coverage problem which is shown to be NP-hard. We present a constant-factor centralized algorithm, and a fully distributed version which does not require sensors know their locations. Our simulation study demonstrates that our algorithms: activate near-optimal number of sensors, converge much faster than other algorithms, significantly prolong (almost double) the network lifetime, and can achieve unequal monitoring of different zones in the forest.

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