The first European pilot project for the detection of mountain fires with AI starts from Piedmont

Thanks to the INWIT towers the Smoke Automatic Detection project – (SAD) – starts in Piedmont. The first European pilot project allows to identify promptly fire outbreaks in mountain areas. Monitoring made possible by the installation of cameras equipped with Artificial Intelligence software on INWIT towers. The software works in real time to report smoke detection and prevent potential outbreaks to reduce the risk of fires propagation.

The experimentation carried out together with Waterview, Turin Company that designed smoCAM software project leader, starts in the Upper Susa Valley near Turin City, in the municipality of Bardonecchia, Oulx and Sauze d’Oulx, for a total area of ​​80 square kilometers. The project presented in Turin with partecipation of Major Stefano Lo Russo, is financed with calls from the NODES Programme, supported by the MUR as part of the European Union program NextGenerationEU (PNRR). In its first phase of implementation 5 cameras will be installed on 5 telecommunication towers already existing in a fires strong risk area that saw which 4000 hectares of forest go up in smoke in the last 7 years.

Thanks to surveillance camera placed on the INWIT mobile telecommunications towers, and low consumption devices in the visible spectrum and engineered by Kiwifarm, it will be possibile to detect ongoing phenomena even at great distances, offering visual feedback and geolocalized information to accompany the reports.

“With this project we confirm the social and environmental role of our digital and shared infrastructures, in support not only of all mobile operators but also of the environment and territories – declared Michelangelo Suigo, Director of External Relations, Communication and Sustainability of INWIT -. After making our towers with IoT sensors, gateways and smart cameras available for projects for monitoring air quality and fire prevention, while also safeguarding the biodiversity present in the area, our commitment to protecting the environment and of the territory grows, with an increasingly innovative approach”. “SAD – according to Paola Allamano, Co-Founder of Waterview – is a project we are very proud of. Applying our computer vision technology to significant portions of territory and remote areas, thanks to the collaboration of widespread digital infrastructure managers such as Inwit, will allow us to truly offer a social benefit to mountain municipalities by guaranteeing timely detection of fire outbreaks and a rapid response, thereby reducing the risk of catastrophic damage and protecting lives and property. SAD is a low cost system, easy to implement, and thanks to sinergy from different player, it can be an effective tool to fires containment and prevention of Public Administration (Municipalities, ect.), Public Authority and agencies for the protection of the territory and the environment (ARPA, National and regional parks), Fire Brigade Directorates, Mountain Communities, ANCI, Critical Infrastructure Managers…”.