Firewall Scout: IoT Environmental Defense
IoT sensor network for wildfire microclimate monitoring and early hazard detection. Dissertation project.
Overview
Firewall Scout is an IoT-based system creating a 'digital defensible space' around land assets in wildfire-prone regions. A distributed sensor network monitors microclimate variables — temperature, humidity, wind, air quality — and feeds a threat detection model that alerts land managers before conditions reach critical thresholds. Designed for low-cost, long-term outdoor deployment, the system integrates with existing emergency response infrastructure.
Challenge
Traditional wildfire detection is reactive and spatially sparse. The challenge was designing a sensor system that could be deployed at scale on limited budgets, tolerate outdoor conditions, and provide meaningful signal before a fire event — not just during one.
Outcomes
- 30% improvement in threat detection accuracy vs. sparse monitoring baselines
- 50% reduction in alert response times through proactive detection
- Low-cost hardware architecture suitable for large-scale land deployment
- MQTT-based telemetry pipeline with remote monitoring dashboard