According to the information received from the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, OGM benefits from high-level technological opportunities and systems in the fight against forest fires. In this context, the Fire Management System was put into practice in order to manage forest fires more effectively and successfully. The Forest Fire Early Warning System was implemented with the cooperation of GDF, Bilkent University and TUBITAK in order to improve institutional capacity, contribute to the early detection of forest fires and extinguish them before they grow, by making use of the developments in information and communication technologies.
The system is connected to 10 thousand air and land vehicles of 30 Regional Directorates of Forestry via mobile data communication device.
The system, in which fires are monitored with instant information on digital maps, also helps managers take the right decision in the fight with the data it provides. In this way, it is ensured that firefighting works are planned with fewer mistakes and a modern organization is created.
With the system, which reduces the response time to forest fires, the efficiency in the management and administration of fire extinguishing activities increased, while labor and economic losses were prevented.
Fire sensitive forest area of 3.5 million hectares is monitored
With the software developed within the scope of the system, forest images with a diameter of 15 kilometers from the location of the fire watchtower are analyzed, and the distant smoke is detected in 15-25 seconds and an alarm is issued.
Through the systems installed, forest fires can be monitored live over the internet. The start of the fire is automatically reported to the authorities via e-mail, SMS or MMS.
With a total of 324 cameras installed so far in 130 fire watchtowers, where critical forest lands are sensitive to fire, 3.5 million hectares of forest areas that are primarily fire sensitive are monitored.
