Türkiye's artificial intelligence, which has been deployed to address the growing challenge of wildfires, has been nominated for the World Information Society Summit Awards, Ibrahim Yumaklı, minister of Agriculture and Forestry, said on Friday.
According to the statement made by the ministry, the decision support system used by the General Directorate of Forestry in its efforts to fight forest fires was nominated for the World Information Society Summit Awards by the International Telecommunication Union affiliated with the United Nations.
Citizens can vote for the system until March 31 on the website https://www.itu.int/net4/wsis/stocktaking/. To vote, registration on the website is required. Once registered, votes can be cast for the "Forest Fires Support Decision System" on the competition page.
Following the competition, voting will take place across 18 categories. Project owners with the most votes in each category will receive awards at the ceremony scheduled for May 27 to 31 in Geneva.
The system, which the ministry has been utilizing since 2022, is software that integrates numerous subsystems. It combines meteorological data, Forest Information System data, UAV and satellite images.
The decision support system enables predictions regarding the likelihood and cause of forest fires based on meteorological data. Additionally, in the event of a fire, instant meteorological and geographical conditions are analyzed to determine the appropriate intervention method, with interventions being simulated if necessary.
The AI-supported system, which constantly analyzes changing conditions, can predict the instantaneous progress of the fire. As a result of these predictions, teams can intervene in the fire more effectively.
Settlements that need to be evacuated can also be evacuated in a timely manner, taking into account the progress of the fire.
The system constantly analyzes existing data and records it instantly. Thanks to this knowledge pool, continuous improvement can be made in firefighting efforts.
Yumaklı stated that the AI system provides great support to the teams fighting the flames in forest fires.
Pointing out his satisfaction that the system was nominated for an international award, Yumaklı said: "Our artificial intelligence-supported system, which strengthens our power in our fight against forest fires, has been nominated for the World Information Society Summit Awards. We expect all our citizens to support our ministry in the online voting."