Invented by Luis Andre Reyes, CEO of Blood Moon Dynamics, Inc.
Breathing Soil is an interconnected underground sensing network for farms, forests, floodplains, mountain slopes and borders. The sensors are powered by the soil itself and are projected to last up to 40 years.
Most monitoring watches what is happening above ground. Breathing Soil detects and monitors changes within the soil, where many risks begin before anything is visible.
Cameras, satellites, aerial surveillance and smoke detection. Useful, but dependent on line of sight, power and maintenance, and limited in remote terrain.
A buried, distributed network of sensors that watches ground conditions continuously and flags changes that may otherwise go unnoticed. No conventional battery replacement and no external solar panels.
From early wildfire detection to precision farming, the same underground network supports a wide range of protection and monitoring needs.
Detect abnormal soil temperature, moisture changes and thermal patterns, and monitor where embers may land, so potential ignitions are caught early and sent to emergency response systems.
Monitor ground beneath high-voltage lines, transformers and substations, with continuous coverage along transmission corridors and early alerts to fire mitigation teams.
Watch for abnormal thermal activity near tracks, ground fires from sparks or hot materials, and remote stretches of railway.
Track soil moisture, drought, temperature and environmental stress over time across remote and inaccessible terrain.
Sense rising soil saturation and subsurface water accumulation before surface flooding, and map how quickly conditions are changing.
Monitor saturation, moisture and ground movement on slopes, road cuts and embankments, with alerts as instability increases.
Add information about ground disturbances around infrastructure. A complementary tool for geotechnical monitoring, not a replacement for conventional seismic instruments.
Detect animals approaching a roadway, identify their direction, and warn traffic systems to help reduce wildlife collisions.
Buried sensors can detect footsteps and ground disturbances around substations, pipelines, remote properties and borders.
Continuous soil moisture and temperature data to support irrigation decisions, and to feed AI-driven management, that apply soil amendments when and where they are needed.
Combine sensor data with AI to separate normal variation from true anomalies, map developing risks, and coordinate with drones, cameras and weather systems.
The greatest opportunity is pairing the sensor network with AI. Here is how a wildfire scenario could unfold.
If a small fire is confirmed, an appropriately equipped response drone or firefighting team could potentially intervene before it becomes a major incident. This is the kind of integrated early detection and response system we believe can be developed.
In a fast fire, every minute between ignition and alert counts. Here is what the ground could have told us first.
A nearly 100-year-old PG&E transmission line started it. It was first reported around 6:30 a.m. and reached the town of Paradise in about 4 hours.
In a fast fire, every minute between ignition and alert is the difference between a controlled evacuation and a disaster. A buried network along the line would have been watching the ground at the source.
Downed power lines started a morning fire. Crews believed it was out and left for other calls. Investigators found it rekindled that afternoon, most likely from an undetected ember in a dry gully.
This is the case for a network that stays in the ground and keeps watching after crews leave. Cameras and patrols move on. Buried nodes don’t.
A mudslide on Highway 99 near Duffey Lake killed four people. CN and CP rail lines were cut, leaving no rail connection between Kamloops and Vancouver. More than 600,000 farm animals died when Sumas Prairie flooded, and insured damage was at least $450 million, the costliest natural disaster in BC history at the time.
Saturation and ground movement build underground before a slope fails or a field floods, and that’s exactly what our network watches.
Silvanet’s published claim is detection “within minutes from ignition,” and it depends on wind carrying smoke to a sensor hanging on a tree.
That after-the-fire reporting is exactly the gap Lahaina exposed.
We’re introducing Breathing Soil to utilities, railroads, land managers, agriculture and infrastructure operators. Tell us about your corridor, forest or field.