What is WUIProtect?
WUIProtect® is one of our innovative projects. WUIProtect® is the acronym for Forest Fire Defense System and is a project to protect natural spaces, people and habitat against fire (developed entirely by us) in which we have been working since 2006.
All technical and manufacturing production is national. We are an environmental and agroforestry engineering consultancy that provides services to people, companies, public administrations, and organizations on a national and international scale with more than 20 years of experience in different types of projects. This project focuses on the so-called “Urban-Forest Interface” or contact zone between populated areas and forest areas that may be affected by a fire.
COLLECTIVE
Our Wildland Urban Interface Fire Protection System (known as the WUIProtect System, by its acronym) is a proprietary patent that since 2006, when we made the first project, has helped to protect several natural spaces and populated areas.
DOMESTIC
From the design of the surrounding landscaping, through the windows, the shutters, or the areas of contact with forest vegetation, our team designs solutions adapted to each case, using water from the pool, a reservoir, or an ornamental fountain.
PORTABLE
Our team, after a lot of testing and trials, came up with the WUIProtect® sappers version. A portable unit of the WUIProtect® that allows to install it in any location, and to feed it from swimming pools, ponds, cisterns, rivers or any other Non-Conventional Water Source (NWSF).
Collective defense
urban area scale
The crown jewel. Our Wildland Urban Interface Fire Protection System (known as the WUIProtect System, by its acronym) is a proprietary patent that since 2006, when we made the first project, has helped to protect several natural spaces and populated areas. Around a population center (collective version), around a building (domestic version) or deployed at the moment of the fire (sappers version), the SIDEINFO® system constitutes a support tool for the Emergency Services in the defense against fire. It can also be applied to the defense of recreational areas, campsites, nature classrooms, industries, hotels and tourist areas, or critical infrastructures. This european patent (100% European production and manufacture) has 4 main lines of action:
- Preventive and self-protection planning: assess the risk, think and design solutions adapted to each scenario, see what to do, how, when and with what resources.
- Preventive silviculture and fire-resistant gardening: vegetation management both in the surroundings of populated areas and gardens. Make the surroundings of villages and houses, industries or the tourist area a line of defense.
- Infrastructures and sensors: water tanks, WUIProtect® fire towers with sprinklers to irrigate the perimeter of the areas to be protected, green firebreaks, monitoring of risk and the effect of prescribed irrigation with wireless sensor networks. Incorporate active defense and response capabilities.
- Education and training: to know what to do in the face of risk, both so that it does not materialize (prevention) and so that when it does occur, we know what to do (self-protection). With training actions we provide knowledge and situational awareness of risk.
Home defense
scale of buildings
Sometimes working with communities is complicated. The interests of some people and others, the economic capacities, or simply the perception of risk, can make a collective defense unfeasible. Other times, it is simply necessary to protect an isolated building, a rural house, an industry, a charming restaurant, or a hotel in the middle of the mountain. For these cases, our team has designed a domestic self-protection option to defend isolated buildings.
From the design of the surrounding landscaping, through the windows, the shutters, or the areas of contact with forest vegetation, our team designs solutions adapted to each case, using water from the pool, a reservoir, or an ornamental fountain. This system can also be automated to be activated from the telephone, favoring the protection of the house and the people who may be present.
Portable defense
mobile operational scale
Once we had developed the system for defending towns, villages or houses, the question we were asked by some people from the Emergency Services was: would it be possible to make it portable? And of course… the basic function of engineering is to provide solutions to the challenges that arise. Our team, after a lot of testing and trials, came up with the WUIProtect® sappers version. A portable unit of the WUIProtect® that allows to install it in any location, and to feed it from swimming pools, ponds, cisterns, rivers or any other Non-Conventional Water Source (NWSF).
From the Gran Canaria’s government, to the Spanish Military Emergency Unit, the València Fire Department or the Generalitat de Catalunya Fire Department, several units have implemented this solution for the defense of populated areas in their catalog of operations.
Cabildo Gran Canaria
Bombers Generalitat Catalunya
Cabildo La Palma
Cabildo La Gomera
Bombers València
Cabildo El Hierro
Cabildo de Tenerife
Protecció Civil Xàbia
Unitat Militar d’Emergències
Protecció Civil Carcaixent
Protecció Civil Guadassuar
Consorci Provincial de Bombers de Málaga
Tactical Interface Units (TIU)
After designing the portable solution, the next step was to design the UTI (Urban-Forest Interface Tactical Units). Basically, the material equipment necessary to defend a specific perimeter strip (for example, 500 meters of WUI) arranged in a trailer or light vehicle in such a way that it was easy to deploy. The idea of these units goes through the tactical application “prepare and defend” that requires certain anticipation at the moment of the impact of the flame front.
These units are agile, and can be deployed by professional or civil protection units with basic training under the direction of the fire sector command, or the extinguishing direction itself. Agility and defensive forcefulness are the keys to this tool designed for populated areas, critical infrastructures or sites where units cannot stay for security reasons.
Technical Support Unit.
The Medi XXI GSA team offers its users the possibility of providing technical assistance and support during emergencies. Specialized staff that can be integrated into the Advisory Committee associated with emergency plans under the current regulations on emergencies and civil protection.
From cartography to technical support in the field of communication associated to the emergency, including analysis or meteorological data, the Technical Support Unit of Medi XXI GSA has collaborated with different Emergency Services throughout the territory.
