Internet of Things can protect the environment? Get ready to be amazed
Internet of Things (IoT) has a large role to play in the future of smart cities. IoT can be used in practically all scenarios for public services by governments to make cities environment friendly. Sensor-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 conceptualise. IoT is a recent communication paradigm that envisions a near future, in which the objects of everyday life will be equipped with micro-controllers, 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.
An urban IoT platform can provide means to monitor the quality of the air in crowded areas, parks, or fitness trails. 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 cellphone 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. ICT empowered atmosphere relief procedures could diminish worldwide environmental change 16.5% by 2020 contrasted with current endeavours.
