In 2021, there were 19 major wildfire disasters globally — the third-highest number recorded in this century. Many raged on for days or weeks, leaving widespread devastation in their wake. Suat Batuhan Esirger, co-founder of ForestGuard and a winner of the Redesign Everything Challenge, was a volunteer during the worst-ever wildfire in Turkey and saw the effects first-hand. Here, he learned that when it comes to fire-fighting, early detection was everything.
Less than a month later, ForestGuard was born. Working at the intersection of design and technology, the team focused all their efforts on developing an early warning system that could detect forest fires within the first 15 minutes. By the end of the year, they had their first prototypes and patents in hand, and were carrying out extensive field tests around the country.
Today, ForestGuard devices are solar-powered, sensor-based, and designed to be fixed on a tree trunk using a simple elastic strap. Each one monitors the air for abnormalities and can even distinguish whether smoke detected in a forest originated from a car exhaust or a cigarette. During the Redesign Everything Sprint in Amsterdam, Batuhan joined us to explain how, and where he sees the project going in the near future.
Suat Batuhan Esirger during the Redesign Everything Challenge Sprint. Photo: Anisa Xhomaqi. A close up of a ForestGuard device. Photo: ForestGuard.
Hi Batuhan! How did the idea for ForestGuard first come about?
In 2021, Turkey had enormous wildfires, the worst in our history. I was there as a drone pilot volunteer to help the search and rescue efforts. And seeing how we fight fires from an inside perspective, made me think of what we can do better. And so together with my co-founder Muhammed Ali Ornek, we focused on the detection of the wildfires.
We did some proof of concepts, some experiments. We tried some different technologies and approaches using sensors, boards, and communication protocols. And at last, we thought: what if the trees themselves could tell us there’s a fire? And that’s how we came up with the idea for ForestGuard.
“We thought: what if the trees themselves could tell us there’s a fire?”
Can you tell us more about your background?
Well, actually, by trade I am an architect. I have a master’s degree in architectural design computing, but I’ve been working with robotics, coding, and drones since 2005. So, I’m very hands-on when it comes to electronics, it has always been a part of my life. When I saw an opportunity to implement that in some sort of way, to make a kind of wearable technology for trees, I realised that we can fight fires in a smarter way.
How did you get the technology to work?
It was trial and error! We really tried a lot of things. But the main question we asked ourselves was: what do the current fire detectors fail to do? We looked at the current technology, and saw that their response times were always a bit too late, because they’re all dependent on line of sight. They’re all visual technologies, satellites, watchtowers. Meaning that in order for them to see the smoke or the fire itself, the fire needs to grow. And it takes a lot of time for these things to become visible above the treeline.
We wanted to cut back that time, so we decided to try the approach of detecting gases in the air. We focused on carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, and methane. From there, we found a newly emerged sensor that can be suited to our needs, which was to sample the air, analyse it, and learn about the area normals. Then we wrote an algorithm to detect any abnormalities.
We taught the module of sensors to differentiate between somebody smoking a cigarette, a combustible engine going by, and actual wildfire. This was our turning point to having something smart, something not giving false positives or negatives, and something that can be implemented in the field.
ForestGuard devices use LoRaWAN technology to communicate with each other and notify the authorities. Photo: ForestGuard.
What do the devices look like? And how do you install them?
It’s fairly simple. It’s just a box with a solar panel, and it has satellite connectivity. We used different communication protocols back in the day, which relied on GSM coverage at some points. However at one point we had an earthquake, another disaster. And due to the earthquake, cell towers were out of service. So our devices were out of service.
Because of that, we pivoted to satellite connectivity. And now, the devices are truly independent and disaster-proof. They don’t need any infrastructure. You just put it on a tree, add a strap, and you’re done. We even have an online dashboard where you can see all of the values and measurements in real-time, as well as alerting notifications, which send an SMS or an app notification to your phone.
“Now, the devices are truly independent and disaster-proof. They don’t need any infrastructure. You just put it on a tree, add a strap, and you’re done.”
What are the boxes made of?
This production model is actually 3D-printed from forest-collected plastics. We had some events with volunteers where we went into the forest and collected garbage. We took the plastics, shredded them, added some raw material, and turned it into a filament to use in 3D printers. So this is one of the devices that is manufactured that way. Since then, our CDO Rana Imam has further optimized this model and made it suitable for injection molding.
It’s a win-win scenario for us, because the more that we remove garbage out of the woods, the more we are reducing the risk of fire. It also makes it a project where you can educate people, because 90%of all wildfires are still caused by humans. So unless there’s a rabbit smoking a cigarette, it’s all human-based errors, basically.
So, what’s the next goal that you’re working towards for the project?
As a next step, we are trying to expand both our team and our reach. So we are in a seed round investment. Because now we are trying to have our activities going on in Europe as well as Northern America and for that, we need more human power and some funding to scale up.
There are probably around 250 devices currently deployed and we have over 2 million square metres of coverage as we speak. And we will have some new deployments in the following weeks.
Rana Imam and Suat Batuhan Esirger with a ForestGuard device. Photo: Anisa Xhomaqi.
Why is it so important that we get wildfires under control?
Well, I was going to talk about the burnt down trees, the oxygen and the animals there, maybe even the affected humans, or the facilities. But one of the most problematic things about it is that it’s a vicious cycle, because it’s nearly as impactful to global warming as industrial emissions. Industrial emissions are responsible for 25% of all emissions in the world and forest fires 20%.
So in a way, we are trying to slow down global warming, slow down the pollution of our air. We are all in the same ship and it’s sinking rapidly. So we are trying every tool that we have in our hands.
“One of the most problematic things about forest fires is that it’s a vicious cycle, because it’s nearly as impactful to global warming as industrial emissions.”
What is one message that you want people to take away from your story?
Why try to put out a fire if we can stop it from even starting? I would like them to think about this question, both metaphorically and literally. As humans and as human species, we tend to tackle the immediate danger. With global warming, we know things are going badly. There’s scientific proof of this, but for many people, the worst is yet to come. It’s not in the near future. It’s not tomorrow. So we prolong the workings of it. We do not take action right now, but we should have taken action years ago. So we should start planning for the future, today. We should take action for the future, today.
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This interview has been lightly edited for clarity and length.
Words by Dune Daffin, interview by Natasha Berting and Chieri Higa.
A ForestGuard device installed on a tree. Photo: ForestGuard.