Turkey’s Domestic and National Fire Decision Support System Placed Second in the International Competition

Minister of AGRICULTURE and Forestry İbrahim Yumaklı stated that the artificial intelligence-based ‘Fire Decision Support System’, which the General Directorate of Forestry (OGM) has developed and used with local and national resources since 2022 for a more effective fight against forest fires, is affiliated with the United Nations (UN). It announced that it came second in the ‘environment’ category in the competition organized by the International Telecommunication Union.

In his written statement, Minister Yumaklı stated that Turkey is in a region sensitive to forest fires and that GDF is making intense efforts to fight fires. Emphasizing that they are constantly increasing air and land power and using technology to protect forests against fires, Yumaklı reminded that they have also started to use artificial intelligence-based applications in fighting fires. Reminding that they have been using the ‘Fire Decision Support System’, which they developed with local and national resources, for 2 years in this sense, Yumaklı noted that the system analyzes the land and forest structure with live, instantaneous meteorological data in case of fire, enabling the teams to intervene quickly and effectively.

‘MORE THAN 2 MILLION VOTES WERE CAST’

Yumaklı stated that the system, which provides great convenience in firefighting, was deemed worthy of an award in the ‘environment’ category at the World Information Society Summit held in Geneva by the International Telecommunication Union affiliated with the UN, and said, “360 of the 1049 projects sent from various countries of the world were for online voting.” It was nominated and more than 2 million votes were cast. OGM’s system received the second award in the competition. Thanks to the system that supports our teams in decision-making in case of fire, we were able to make more effective and on-site interventions in the future and with fewer casualties. “We will have the opportunity to extinguish fires. I congratulate all my colleagues, especially those who contributed to the Decision Support System developed with local and national resources,” he said.

HOW THE SYSTEM WORKS

With the developed software; Determining the cause of fire, predicting fire behavior and determining intervention methods against possible fires can be determined. Again, with the software in question, fire intervention locations, the type and amount of vehicles and equipment that should be used within the scope of the intervention can be determined. A GIS (Geographic Information System) and artificial intelligence-based forest fire modeling and decision support system is being created by using instant meteorological, geographical and forest data to minimize the danger in forest fires and to provide rapid action items to protect the environment, biodiversity, human and animal life. The Decision Support System instantly processes the structure of forests and lands across Turkey and the current location of the teams within its meteorological data, informing them at the time of the incident and warning them about the number of teams to be directed, their directions, places to replenish water and the necessary equipment. The system can send task orders to the closest teams in case of a fire, share the location with their navigation and provide information about the incident.