BARA - Peat Fire Detection System

About the Project

Peatland fire is a recurring source of transboundary haze in Southeast Asia. Malaysia holds approximately 2.5 million hectares of peatland, and drained peatland accounts for around 3 percent of global anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. Operational warning systems depend on satellite thermal detection, which registers heat at the ground surface and cannot resolve smouldering below it. Smouldering combustion in drained peat spreads downward at roughly 1 centimetre per hour to depths near 50 centimetres, and field measurements place its surface temperature between 47 and 277 degrees Celsius, often below the threshold a satellite requires for reliable detection. Water table depth predicts ignition and is required by sustainable palm oil certification to be measured weekly at one pipe per 120 hectares, yet a three-year study in North Selangor recorded it manually once a month. BARA is a two-layer wireless sensor network for oil palm estates on peat. A sparse layer of solar-powered water table stations reports hourly at one unit per 120 hectares, using a submersible pressure sensor with surface barometric compensation. A dense layer of carbon monoxide probes samples soil gas at 1 metre depth every 200 metres along canals, boundaries and access tracks, where ignition is most likely. Smouldering releases carbon monoxide in disproportionate quantity, and the gas migrates through porous peat ahead of the thermal front. Alerting requires similarity between the gas reading and a co-located soil temperature profile, with the trigger threshold scaled to current water table depth, and long-range radio removes dependence on cellular coverage. The system aligns with United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 13, Climate Action.