Applications of the Internet of Things (IoT) in Real-Time Monitoring of Contaminants in the Air, Water, and Soil

Abstract

Sensor networks using the Internet of Things (IoT) are gaining momentum for real-time monitoring of the environment. Increased use of natural resources due to a rise in agriculture production, manufacturing, and civil infrastructure poses a challenge to sustainable growth and development of the global economy. For sustainable use of natural resources (including air, soil, and water), data-driven modeling is needed to understand and simulate contaminant transport and proliferation. Different logging devices are specifically designed to integrate with environmental sensors that send real-time data to the cloud using IoT systems for monitoring. The IoT systems use an LTE network or Wi-Fi to transmit air, water, and soil quality data to the cloud networks. This seamless integration between the logging devices and IoT sensors creates an autonomous monitoring system that can observe environmental parameters in real-time. Various federal organizations and industries have implemented the IoT-based sensor network to monitor real-time air quality parameters (particulate matter, gaseous pollutants), water quality parameters (turbidity, pH, temperature, and specific conductance), and soil parameters (moisture content, soil nutrients). Although several organizations have used IoT systems to monitor environmental parameters, a proper framework to make the monitoring systems reliable and cost-efficient was not explored. The main objective of this study is to present a framework that combines a sensing layer, a network layer, and a visualization layer, allowing modelers and other stakeholders to observe a progressive trend in environmental data while being cost-efficient. This efficient real-time monitoring framework with IoT systems helps in developing robust statistical and mathematical models. The sustainable development of smart cities while maintaining public health requires reliable environmental monitoring data that can be possible by the proposed IoT framework.

Keywords

• real-time monitoring
• Internet of Things
• cloud
• microcontroller
• low-cost sensors