The IoT, or Internet of Things, will improve general well-being. It also represents an opportunity to foster sustainable development. Collecting and transmitting data without human intervention will reduce energy expenditure and care for the planet if the focus is on sustainable development.
The transmission of information
The number of connected objects is constantly growing, and everything indicates that IoT will soon be part of everyday life for all urban areas, especially if computers, tablets and smartphones are included in the calculation. Thanks to this increased presence, it will be increasingly easy to adapt the environment to the needs of the moment in real time. The information is captured and transmitted on a platform where it is analysed.
Increasingly, companies and communities are becoming aware of the value of the information provided by the IoT and understand the need to use it to protect the environment and support sustainable development.
Indeed, the IoT allows for the analysis of a wide range of relevant information. Contextual data, such as wind strength, temperature, and humidity, can be relayed through the IoT. It can also relay quantitative information such as air and water quality. It can also detect network failures.
In addition to factual data, the Internet of Things transmits dynamic data such as energy consumption of habitats, road traffic and water consumption. Dynamic data can be passive or active. Passive data is relayed by a sensor, while active data requires a reaction from one or more individuals.
When the transmitted data is analysed, the competent authorities are able to intervene in a targeted and precise manner on the territory. In this way, environmental performance is improved in real time.
The benefits for companies are immense. They can optimise their operational costs and simplify their management. They are also able to secure and supervise their connected objects remotely.
By adopting IoT, companies and organisations avoid additional costs as they can avoid sending staff to the scene of a leak or failure. They can intervene more effectively.
The importance of the environment
One of the main objectives of the IoT must be to promote the environment. Organisations and companies adopting the Internet of Things must therefore use the data in a sustainable development perspective. By knowing how to analyse and combine the information transmitted, it becomes possible to have an overall view of the environment. This is an opportunity to put all the elements in place in a coherent way.
Several cities around the world have already carried out experiments that highlight the information collected thanks to the IoT. The municipality of Saint-Amant Montrond, for example, has created a noise mapping system. Citizens have contributed to the implementation of the project by capturing the noise and sounds of their environment using an application. Interactive maps transmitted the information in real time.
Barcelona also innovated by using the IoT to install sensors on streetlights converted to LEDs that only light up when pedestrians are detected nearby. The city has thus achieved considerable energy savings.
The future of IoT
In order to significantly improve environmental performance, certain obstacles still need to be removed. In particular, the data transmission distance needs to be increased to require fewer relays. It is also necessary to reduce the energy consumption of sensors. Their manufacture also poses a problem at present since they are made from heavy and rare metals, which makes them harmful to the environment.
The service life of the sensors must also be extended. It currently varies from 5 to 10 years. There are therefore still some aspects to be improved if the Internet of Things is to lead to maximum use of the resources of urban areas.
The transmission of information in real time is valuable and helps to eliminate the waste of resources. For example, a water leak is detected immediately, and a rapid intervention can be carried out when previously a lot of damage was done before anyone realised that there was a leak.
Connected objects are becoming less and less expensive and it will be less and less costly for companies to adopt IoT. The investment is worthwhile considering all the savings that will be made in the long term. In addition, IoT enables predictive analysis and therefore better production planning.
There is growing public support for environmental measures and growing concern about the state of the planet. Implementing IoT in companies is therefore not a problem in the eyes of the majority of employees. The ease of use of connected objects will help to spread their use to an increasingly wide audience.
The success of the IoT will be based on data management platforms. It will be necessary that the analyses are clearly laid out in order to take advantage of all the information provided. Interfaces must be simple so that users can easily gather environmental data.
Management of natural resources
IoT is essential for effective natural resource management. Water, gas, and electricity are very resource-intensive and labour-intensive. Breakdowns and leaks are difficult to prevent. Optimisation of the elements of each network is essential, while it is imperative to reduce energy consumption.
The Internet of Things provides several solutions to the problem of environmental performance. The installation of smart grids and sensors makes it possible to collect data in real time and to know the state of the network at all times. This information is immediately relayed to a platform where it is analysed. Breakdowns and leaks are therefore identified in a short time and interventions are faster.
Air quality
Air quality is a major concern as more and more people will be living in cities in the coming years. Increasingly high pollution peaks are appearing, and large conurbations have already started to intervene using IoT. They manage to regulate road traffic when air quality becomes a concern.
Thanks to the latest sensor models, it is possible to use data collection to analyse air quality in real time. An alert is issued when air quality is too bad. This technology is expected to be widely adopted to address this problem.
Agriculture and IoT
The agronomy sector is making increasing use of IoT and digital technologies to improve its performance from a sustainable development perspective. Sensors allow better control over production. It is becoming possible to reduce the amount of waste produced by agricultural activity and to adjust processes according to external factors such as temperature or brightness.
These sensors have many advantages, including the ability to detect exactly how much water is needed for watering by measuring the moisture content of the soil in real time. Waste is therefore avoided. Farmers are therefore able to make the best decisions based on the actual situation.
Make full use of your data by using Ryax and optimise your treatment to the maximum.
The Ryax Team.