How IoT is playing a key role in protecting the Environment

By Ashish Gulati, Country Head Telit India

Internet of Things (IoT) has a large role to play in future of smart cities which in turn are supposed to be environment friendly.

IoT can be used in practically all scenarios for public services by governments to make cities environment friendly. 1TSensor-enabled devices can help monitor the environmental impact on cities, collect details about sewers, air quality, and garbage. Such devices can also help monitor woods, rivers, lakes, and oceans.

Many environmental trends are so complex, that they are difficult to conceptualize. IoT is a recent communication paradigm that envisions a near future, in which the objects of everyday life will be equipped with microcontrollers, transceivers for digital communication, and suitable protocol stacks that will enable them to communicate not only with one another but also the users, becoming an integral part of the Internet and the environment.

IoT environmental monitoring applications usually use sensors to lend a hand in environmental protection by monitoring air or water quality, atmospheric or soil conditions, and can even include areas like monitoring the movements of wildlife and their habitats. Development of resource constrained devices connected to the Internet also means that other applications such as tsunami or earthquake early warning systems can also reported and used by emergency services to provide effective aid.

An urban IoT can provide means to monitor the quality of the air in crowded areas, parks, or fitness trails. The realization of such a service requires that air quality and pollution sensors be deployed across the city and the sensor data be made publicly available to citizens.

Due to the vast technological developments in the field of wireless communication technology, it has led to the emergence of many pollution monitoring sensors and wireless networks for monitoring and reporting pollution.

From real time monitoring of water quality in the ocean through sensors connected to a buoy that sends information via the GPRS network, to the monitoring of goods being shipped around the world, and smart power grids that create conditions for more rational production planning and consumption can all be achieved via microchips implanted in objects that communicate with each other.

Some applications related to the IoT aren’t new: toll collection tags, security access key cards, devices to track stolen cars and various types of identity tags for retail goods and livestock. Other monitoring and tracking systems have more business uses such as solving or averting problems like sending a cell-phone alert to drivers that traffic is backed up at a particular exit ramp, and increasing efficiencies such as enabling a utility to remotely switch off an electric meter in a just-vacated apartment.

Some of the key usage of IoT in saving the land from excessive misuse is in adopting Smart Farming. With over 70% cultivable land in India, usage of IoT can greatly benefit the farmers in not only controlling production but also in soil protection.

Productive cultivating has an enormous positive effect on nature. Innovation was being utilized to control harvest or nursery water system through sensors. For example programmed water system in Southern California is being conveyed as an approach to battle the intermittent dry seasons giving water as per the states of soil.

Associated automatons are likewise being sent in cultivating. Their on-board sensors help ranchers enhance the utilization of composts and plant assurance items other than giving airborne soil condition information to supplement soil sensor data.

Another critical usage in is Energy Efficiency. ICT-empowered atmosphere relief procedures could diminish worldwide environmental change 16.5% by 2020 contrasted with current endeavors. No other atmosphere alleviation system is relied upon to be as powerful.

These upgrades incorporate Smart Home and Smart Building vitality administration, effective utilization of home machines, keen matrix gadgets, resource following connected to co-ordinations and savvy modern engines that adjust speed dynamically to outline with just a few cases where IoT can play a key role in energy efficiency

The energy toll of adding connected device by the million every year is enormous and it cannot be overseen. It is in the interest of everyone moving forward to create an IoT that minimizes energy requirements and environmental impact. In the near future, low-power sensors will be able to work under conditions that surpass current IoT capabilities. Besides working underground or being able to be deployed at a long distance from the nearest antenna, battery life will be extended to last for years, thus reducing the energy impact.

For India’s Smart City program to flourish, Waste Management would play a very important role. In the current scenario, waste management process is in shambles and government is struggling to find ways for eco friendly disposal. IoT solutions and devices for waste management revolves around two main benefits: determining the best time to collect waste and figuring out what route trucks should follow.

These two advantages can reduce the time it takes to address potential waste build-up problems. In waste disposal, technologies like IoT can help the city administration in controlling the amount of waste that is disposed at regular intervals thereby avoiding build up and using the end residue for other developmental activities like road building or supplying residue gas to power stations etc.

In a few years time, water would be the most precious commodity in India. It would be more expensive than Oil and Gold. In India over 70% of the population is employed in agriculture, water management is extremely crucial as water is a scarce commodity. Water management and precision agriculture should almost always be discussed together for a number of reasons.

Agriculture is, by far, the biggest user of water in the world. Farmer’s use 70% of the world’s freshwater, but 60% of it is wasted due to leaky irrigation systems, inefficient applications methods and the cultivation of thirsty crops, according to a research done by World Wildlife Fund.

The deployment of sensors and actuators provides farmers with increased visibility over their operation, allowing them to optimize water usage and minimize waste by assessing a number of metrics including temperature, water pressure and quality. IoT-enabled water management can also be done on a consumer-level with the installation of smart water sensors in homes and apartments. Those devices, combined with data analytics, can give residents more visibility into the amount of water they use, potentially saving money and conserving this precious resource.

Deforestation is another issue that is impacting not only India but the global environment. Here in Drone technology has been used to prevent and fight forest fires, they are also now part of an initiative started by BioCarbon Engineering to replant 1 billion trees lost from deforestation. Currently, more than 6.5 billion trees are lost each year due to human activities and natural disasters, according to the company. At the United Nations Climate Summit, a commitment was made to restore 350 million hectares of degraded and deforested land by 2030 (estimated to require up to 300 billion trees to be planted).

BioCarbon Engineering is convinced that goal will not be achievable unless alternative techniques are used for planting and maintenance. Their solution using IoT technologies is threefold: using precision agriculture techniques to increase uptake rates; deploy automated technology to reduce manpower requirements and cost; and deploy drones to determine mapping patters, landscape design and timing.

The sensing and connectivity elements of IoT are also being widely used together to prevent and mitigate the effects of natural disasters. Herein countries are using internet to connect thousands of sensors to cloud-based servers. Those sensors are detecting motion close to an earthquakes epicenter and transmitting data out to centers that can issue a warning to residents.

Many companies globally are using IoT for damage prevention. For example pressure-sensing electronic probe are designed to detect the levels of resistance required for a user to penetrate the surface of snow-packed ground. That measured level is read almost instantaneously on a liquid crystal display screen and can be used to determine the likelihood of an avalanche.
IoT is a technology which not only benefits businesses but is also an eco friendly technology which benefits not only the environment but mankind as whole.