Raising Awareness of the Wildfire Risk in Alcoy

Challenge

The Font Roja Natural Park in Alcoy requires robust wildfire prevention strategies due to increasing climate change-induced risks like heat and drought. The primary challenge involves effectively monitoring hyper-local environmental conditions while fostering public awareness, ensuring that forest managers can act proactively while citizens remain informed and safe.

Solution

Our initiative innovates by blending advanced IoT technology with natural heritage through a reimagined information panel. Traditionally serving only as a static information board or map, the panel is now a smart, solar-powered information board, communicating information about wildfire risk levels in real time.

With Dragino sensors installed directly in the natural park, LORIOT Verso collects the necessary data to analyze in the cloud and calculates internationally recognized scientific wildfire risk index. This then translates into a clear wildfire risk level, unique to each area of the park.

Through intelligent warning lights and an interactive QR code on the panel, visitors receive visual real-time information about the current wildfire risk and can access a digital dashboard. This allows them to connect with the natural park by exploring environmental measurements and analyzing historical data from the past; understanding that this natural heritage is a “living organism”.

With our drive for innovation, together with SETRA SL we created the world's first panel that transformed 'old-school' totems into a dynamic tool for public engagement and safety.

"Thanks to LORIOT Verso, real-time sensor data gives us everything essential for fire prevention, rapid action, and keeping citizens informed about potential risks in our natural park."
Toni Francés - Mayor of Alcoy, Spain.

The Return

At the heart of this initiative stands the smart totem, which serves as a beacon of transparency and safety. By bridging the gap between complex environmental data and public understanding, the totem transforms citizens into active protectors of the natural landscape. It provides immediate, intuitive visual alerts and empowers visitors to engage through an interactive digital interface, creating a model that fosters shared responsibility while delivering invaluable data for wildfire prevention strategies.

This way the project delivers 2 tools for wildfire prevention:

1. The City Council and forest guards gain access to detailed dashboards that analyze and summarize real-time data alongside historical trends, providing a clear overview for better preparation against heatwaves and wildfire seasons.

Amongst others, our platform provides:

• Faster and objective decision making
• Improved Internal Communication
• Accurate and Hyperlocal Fire Risk Assessment
• Enhanced safety

2. From the public point of view, the citizens and everyone that passes by can see the wildfire risk levels by just taking a look at the information panel itself. But there is more, when interacting with the QR code on the panel itself. Additional information becomes available with the warnings and explanations of the risk levels with the real time and historical measurements.

The totem delivers:

• Additional Education on the Wildfire Topic and its Risks
• Raising Awareness of the Wildfires, Dangerous Activities and Risk Levels
• Increased Visibility of the Wildfire related topics and government’s activity amongst the citizens

The project supports multiple United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The true success of LORIOT Verso in this project is its ability to transform raw environmental data into tangible, aggregated, useful information. Useful for the administration and park rangers to make informed decisions, and useful for citizens to become active participants in protecting the park. It is deeply rewarding to transform months of hard work into a concrete deliverable. "
Robin Wulfes - IoT Solutions Lead at LORIOT Verso.