How it works

What is WUIProtect and how does it work?

The foundation of wildfire defence in natural areas is sustainable forest management. WUIProtect takes it one step further.

Advanced sustainable forest management

Use without overexploitation

Managing forests sustainably means caring for them and ensuring their continuity: that they keep benefiting society with their products and services, and remain available for future generations.

At Medi XXI GSA we have developed techniques of advanced sustainable forest management, adding concepts such as maximising the water available to plants to classic management, so that they do not burn fiercely. We work in the forest at a pace that keeps it healthy, prevents fires and preserves its biodiversity, its capacity to regenerate and its ecological, social and economic functions.

Developed by Medi XXI GSA

A Valencian patent, made in Spain

WUIProtect® —known in Spain as SIDEINFO®, short for Sistema de Defensa contra Incendios Forestales— protects natural areas, people and homes from fire. It was developed entirely by Medi XXI GSA, an environmental and agroforestry engineering consultancy from the Ribera Alta region of Valencia, and we have worked on it since 2006. All engineering and manufacturing take place in Spain.

The system focuses on the wildland-urban interface: the contact zone between populated areas and the forest areas that a wildfire may reach.

Circular economy

Reclaimed water to keep firebreaks green

Every WUIProtect project applies circular-economy principles to materials, water and energy. We use reclaimed water from the communities themselves and the energy we extract from the forest as biomass, a renewable resource.

Prescribed irrigation locally changes temperature and relative humidity, and vegetation shapes wind speed in the impact zones. Recycled water keeps firebreaks green even in drought and reduces risk through active management.

How WUIProtect is built

The four pillars

1

Preventive, emergency and self-protection planning

The first component is the technical documentation describing the solutions from every angle of the problem —economic, social, environmental and technical—, at every time scale (before, during and after the fire) and every spatial scale (landscape, community, building), together with administrative and funding solutions. Good planning is the basis of good defence.

Medi XXI GSA has produced hundreds of technical documents on prevention, emergency operations and self-protection, and post-fire restoration. We also train emergency professionals —wildland firefighters, Spain’s Military Emergencies Unit, civil protection— and feed their operational experience back into planning.

2

Preventive forest management and fire-smart gardening

From the protected area outwards, towards the forest, we apply silviculture; inwards, towards the built-up area, fire-smart gardening.

Silviculture (from the Latin silva, forest, and cultura, cultivation) is the science of tending and growing forests: it studies how they work, designs their composition and development, and adapts them to natural or human disturbances such as pests or fires. With WUIProtect we carry out planned preventive silviculture to create defensible spaces, so that if a fire breaks out it reaches the area without exceeding the capacity of wildland firefighters.

Fire-smart gardening is preventive gardening against wildfires: it creates ornamental planting in populated areas that resists the passage of fire. In both cases we propose prescribed irrigation guidelines to keep vegetation —the fuel— within safe availability ranges.

3

Infrastructure and sensors

Once the work is planned and the vegetation managed, the infrastructure follows: tanks that increase the volume of water available, the hydraulic network that takes it where it is needed, pumping equipment, and command and control. We specialise in advanced wildfire hydraulics.

All this muscle is controlled and monitored by a wireless network of sensors installed in the trees, managed from our NETSense™ platform, the brain of the system. We also install physical and virtual signage (augmented reality, dynamic signs) for hydrants, evacuation routes and evacuee reception centres.

4

Forest training and education

Many people live in high wildfire-risk areas without knowing it. Situational awareness is key to self-protection, so we train people who own homes or businesses in risk areas —and therefore own that risk— to prevent it and to know how to respond.

We also train professionals. More than 20 years of teaching and field experience have led us to train hundreds of emergency service staff in preventive and self-protection planning, advanced hydraulics, fire use and fire simulation.

History

How WUIProtect has evolved

  1. 2005

    The project is born in Carcaixent with the first draft of the design and installation project.

  2. 2006

    First major project at the Santa Marina estate, which helped protect homes during the June 2016 fire.

  3. 2012

    The El Vedat de Torrent project is recognised as a United Nations Best Practice in Dubai.

  4. 2019

    The Parador de Cruz de Tejeda installation (Gran Canaria) proves its effectiveness during a wildfire. Medi XXI joins GUARDIAN as a partner.

  5. 2022

    GUARDIAN completes the largest wildfire defence installation in Europe in the Túria Natural Park.

  6. 2025

    GUARDIAN’s cannon towers, supplied with reclaimed water, are activated during the Riba-roja de Túria wildfire.

Self-protection. Flexibility. Effectiveness.

WUIProtect is installed in several housing estates and comes in versions for every setting. Tell us what you want to protect.

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