By: Nurul Ezzaty Mohd Azhari
Photo: Mozaid Idris
SERDANG, July 25 – A team of researchers from Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) developed an IoT-Based Peatland Monitoring Data Analytics IoT monitoring system to prevent peatland fires.
Chief researcher, Prof. Ir. Dr. Aduwati Sali from the UPM Faculty of Engineering said the IoT system will be installed six feet deep in the peat swamp forest as a sensor that will monitor groundwater level (GWL), and the data will be sent to a server known as LoRa to measure soil moisture.
"This technology is developed with an IoT system to optimise environmental monitoring and management in providing the forest management community a better understanding of the ecosystem and analyse the accumulated climate data," she said.
She added that the establishment of a weather station or tower in this system acts as an early warning prevention system to detect the presence of heat in the peat swamp area as well as being an indication of the red zone.
"In Malaysia, this system is only installed in the Raja Musa Peat Swamp Forest Reserve. It would be great if this system could be installed in all peat swamp forest reserves in this country to prevent fires from happening," she said.
Prof. Ir. Dr. Aduwati said if these mangrove swamp forests are not monitored, they could cause fires because it is easy for these forests to catch fire when dry, and the fire spreads easily, causing haze.
"The data on the state of groundwater is found to be crucial in ensuring the peat soil wetting process can be carried out automatically in the affected areas, and the system ensures the soil remains moist so that the forest does not catch fire easily," she said.
Other than that, the technology developed is cost-friendly because its access, LoRA, is free. In addition, it offers a thorough and real-time monitoring process in terms of time and its effectiveness in detecting the drying level of water underground.
The IoT technology will help the local communities with a fire warning system, especially during the dry season. It is integrated with other systems such as the Fire Danger Rating System (FDRS). -UPM
