Forecasting and communication key elements for low-cost fluvial flooding early warning system in urban areas

Fluvial flooding occurs when a river overspills its banks due to excessive rainfall, and it is the most common flood event. In urban areas, the increment of urbanization makes communities more susceptible to fluvial flooding since the excess of impervious surfaces reduced the natural permeable areas. As flood prevention strategies, early warning systems (EWS) are used to reduce damage and protect people, but key elements need to be selected. This manuscript proposes the monitoring instruments, communication protocols, and media to forecast and disseminate EWS alerts efficiently during fluvial floods in urban areas. First, we conducted a systematic review of different EWS architectures for fluvial floods in urban areas and identified that not all projects monitor the most important variables related to the formation of fluvial floods and most use communication protocols with high-energy consumption. ZigBee and LoRaWAN are the communication protocols with lower power consumption from the review, and to determine which technology has better performance in urban areas, two wireless sensor networks were deployed and simulated in two urban areas susceptible to fluvial floods using Radio Mobile software. The results showed that although Zigbee technology has better-received signal strength, the difference with LoRAWAN is lower than 2 dBm, but LoRaWAN has a better signal-to-noise ratio, power consumption, coverage, and deployment cost

IoT based early warning system for torrential floods

S obzirom na to da je pretežno planinska zemlja, u Bosni i Hercegovini se povremeno dešavaju elementarne nepogode, pre svega poplave, koje mogu prouzrokovati značajnu materijalnu štetu i ljudske žrtve. Postojeći sistem za zaštitu od poplava je zasnovan na praćenju vodostaja velikih reka. Nasuprot tome, katastrofalne poplave su kratkotrajan i turbulentan fenomen, koji može izazvati lavine, ozbiljnu materijalnu štetu i gubitak ljudskih života. Sakupljanjem i analiziranjem podataka u karakterističnim tačkama terena je moguće otkriti situacije koje bi mogle da dovedu do poplave, nizvodno u rečnom basenu. Automatsko grupisanje takvih podataka od strane nadležnih službi bi moglo da obezbedi pravovremenu organizaciju odbrane od poplava. Integracijom softverskih komponenti, senzora i mikrokontrolera sa mrežnim serverom i namenskim softverom je stvoren sistem za rano upozoravanje, sposoban da na vreme uoči rizik od izlivanja reka, kao i rizik od katastrofalnih poplava i lavina. Sistem je zasnovan na mreži automatskih meteoroloških stanica (AMS). koje centralnom serveru šalju podatke u pravilnim vremenskim intervalima, da bi se ovi podaci nakon dalje obrade prikazali osoblju sa odgovarajućim pristupom sistemu.Being predominantly a mountainous country, in Bosnia and Herzegovina natural disasters periodically occur, especially floods, which can cause extensive material damage and human casualties. The existing flood defense system is focused on monitoring the situation on major rivers. In contrast, torrential floods are short-lived but turbulent phenomena, causing landslides, extensive material damage and loss of human lives. By collecting data from characteristic points on the terrain and analyzing them, it is possible to detect a situation which could cause torrential floods further in the river basin. Automated aggregation of such data by the competent services could provide timely organization of flood defenses. By integrating hardware components, sensors, microcontrollers with a Web server and custom built software, an early warning system was created capable of providing timely alerts to the risks of pouring of the rivers, as well as the emergence of torrential streams or landslides. The system is based on a network of automatic meteorological stations (AMS), which submit data at regular intervals to a central server, where this data is further processed and displayed to persons with appropriate authorization level to access the system

IoT based early warning system for torrential floods

S obzirom na to da je pretežno planinska zemlja, u Bosni i Hercegovini se povremeno dešavaju elementarne nepogode, pre svega poplave, koje mogu prouzrokovati značajnu materijalnu štetu i ljudske žrtve. Postojeći sistem za zaštitu od poplava je zasnovan na praćenju vodostaja velikih reka. Nasuprot tome, katastrofalne poplave su kratkotrajan i turbulentan fenomen, koji može izazvati lavine, ozbiljnu materijalnu štetu i gubitak ljudskih života. Sakupljanjem i analiziranjem podataka u karakterističnim tačkama terena je moguće otkriti situacije koje bi mogle da dovedu do poplave, nizvodno u rečnom basenu. Automatsko grupisanje takvih podataka od strane nadležnih službi bi moglo da obezbedi pravovremenu organizaciju odbrane od poplava. Integracijom softverskih komponenti, senzora i mikrokontrolera sa mrežnim serverom i namenskim softverom je stvoren sistem za rano upozoravanje, sposoban da na vreme uoči rizik od izlivanja reka, kao i rizik od katastrofalnih poplava i lavina. Sistem je zasnovan na mreži automatskih meteoroloških stanica (AMS). koje centralnom serveru šalju podatke u pravilnim vremenskim intervalima, da bi se ovi podaci nakon dalje obrade prikazali osoblju sa odgovarajućim pristupom sistemu.Being predominantly a mountainous country, in Bosnia and Herzegovina natural disasters periodically occur, especially floods, which can cause extensive material damage and human casualties. The existing flood defense system is focused on monitoring the situation on major rivers. In contrast, torrential floods are short-lived but turbulent phenomena, causing landslides, extensive material damage and loss of human lives. By collecting data from characteristic points on the terrain and analyzing them, it is possible to detect a situation which could cause torrential floods further in the river basin. Automated aggregation of such data by the competent services could provide timely organization of flood defenses. By integrating hardware components, sensors, microcontrollers with a Web server and custom built software, an early warning system was created capable of providing timely alerts to the risks of pouring of the rivers, as well as the emergence of torrential streams or landslides. The system is based on a network of automatic meteorological stations (AMS), which submit data at regular intervals to a central server, where this data is further processed and displayed to persons with appropriate authorization level to access the system

Flood Monitoring and Alert System Using Wireless Sensor Network

Flood monitoring and alert system using wireless sensor network is a project to collect flood data in Perak Tengah Region. The project will develop a system that uses a wireless sensor network which consists of a sensor, transceiver to transmit data, and computational device to monitor and predict the flood. Water level, Temperature, and Water velocity data are vital in order to predict the flood disaster. The working principle for this mechanism begin with sensors collecting flood parameters at a specific location, follows by the transmission of these parameters from nodes to the base station. The system will automatically compare the measured parameter with the threshold value that we set for the probability of flood disaster. If the measured values exceed the threshold values that are set, an alert message will be triggered through the use of a Global System for Mobile (GSM

Design of an automatic escaped animal detection and monitoring system: a case study of Volcanoes National Park (VNP)

A Project Report Submitted in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Embedded and Mobile Systems of the Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science and TechnologyThe results have been shown that the people especially farmers living at the edge of Volcanoes National Park (VNP) practiced agricultural business due to the fertile soil found in the region. The rising number of agronomies in the zone, number of tourists, and illegal forest users such as poaching, and deforestation cause wild animals to get out of their habitats. Therefore, their crops are raided by forest animals which present a likely risk to damage crops whenever they get out of the forest. The current systems such as “Buffer Wall also known as wall of stones” was manually operated; electric fence systems resulted in death and pain to wild animals. Due to the development of automatic systems for detecting and monitoring all moving wild animals and intruders, it was stated that using automation at Buffer wall could be helpful for both wild animals and farmers keep safe. Security is an importance in the VNP whereby detection and monitoring wildlife would determine the needs by park officials. The objectives of developing an Automatic Escaped Animal Detection and Monitoring System were to reduce the probability of crop raids, death and injuries between wild animals and farmers, warning the wild animals through the use of buzzer, speaker with a recorder voice of lion and block of LEDs to remain in their habitats and the notifications sent to the park officials related to the forest animals getting out of the forest. Since wild animals and intruders found in buffer zone targeting to pass by the buffer wall for crop raiding and poaching activities; this system should primarily use sensing devices to detect and monitor their presence. On the other hand, for buffer wall security, warning equipment’s such as block of LEDs, Buzzer, SIREN Alarm and speaker should all together be activated. Whenever wild animals and trespassers would search to pass by another part would be activated the same way as the previous. The specialty of this technological system developed was to automate manual and improve the current systems by using Arduino NANO Microcontroller to execute system’s operations, GPS NEO 6M for locating moving wild animal, Ultrasonic sensor for detecting wildlife and calculating its speed, PIR sensor to detect intruders, GSM SIM900 to notify park rangers, reduction of crop raiding, and finally reducing death and pain of wild animals caused by current systems

Environmental Management

Environmental Management - Pollution, Habitat, Ecology, and Sustainability includes sixteen chapters that discuss pressing environmental issues in diverse locations around the world. Chapters discuss methods, technologies, analyses, and actions that may enlighten and enable decision-makers and managers in their quests for control of environmental problems. The authors present the facts and the challenges behind the assorted issues and offer new perspectives for contending with natural, social, economic, and political aspects of management

Machine Intelligence in Africa: a survey

In the last 5 years, the availability of large audio datasets in African countries has opened unlimited opportunities to build machine intelligence (MI) technologies that are closer to the people and speak, learn, understand, and do businesses in local languages, including for those who cannot read and write. Unfortunately, these audio datasets are not fully exploited by current MI tools, leaving several Africans out of MI business opportunities. Additionally, many state-of-the-art MI models are not culture-aware, and the ethics of their adoption indexes are questionable. The lack thereof is a major drawback in many applications in Africa. This paper summarizes recent developments in machine intelligence in Africa from a multi-layer multiscale and culture-aware ethics perspective, showcasing MI use cases in 54 African countries through 400 articles on MI research, industry, government actions, as well as uses in art, music, the informal economy, and small businesses in Africa. The survey also opens discussions on the reliability of MI rankings and indexes in the African continent as well as algorithmic definitions of unclear terms used in MI.Comment: Accepted and to be presented at DSAI 202

Sustainable Agriculture and Advances of Remote Sensing (Volume 2)

Agriculture, as the main source of alimentation and the most important economic activity globally, is being affected by the impacts of climate change. To maintain and increase our global food system production, to reduce biodiversity loss and preserve our natural ecosystem, new practices and technologies are required. This book focuses on the latest advances in remote sensing technology and agricultural engineering leading to the sustainable agriculture practices. Earth observation data, in situ and proxy-remote sensing data are the main source of information for monitoring and analyzing agriculture activities. Particular attention is given to earth observation satellites and the Internet of Things for data collection, to multispectral and hyperspectral data analysis using machine learning and deep learning, to WebGIS and the Internet of Things for sharing and publication of the results, among others

Sistema de monitorización de variables agrícolas basado en la tecnología WSN para el cultivo de la yuca

Maestría en IngenieríaAgriculture and natural resources associated to it, like water, soil and forest carry out an important role in country’s future and environment conservation, thus, the optimization of these resources through implementation strategies and technological gadgets make this possible (Perfetti, Balcázar, Hernández, & Leibovich, 2013). Different platforms, communication protocols and operative systems for motes were analyzed, focused on WSN (Wireless Sensor Network). Then, an agricultural monitoring prototype for yucca farming in Atlantico department was developed, based on Z1 Zolertia platform, programmed by Contiki language and working with RPL protocol (Routing Protocol for Low-Power and Lossy Networks). The motes integration, the operative system and protocol, were evaluated with packet losses performance metrics, RSSI (Received Signal Strength Indicator), LQI (Link Quality Indicator) and network convergence, showing a good performance at different distances. Later, a deployment model was made based on regular polygons, using the Schäfli (the number of nodes can be calculated avoiding randomness). Additionally, the node coverage range was calculated, obtaining the distance between them to keep the network uniformity as suggested in (Poe & Scmitt, 2009). Link Networks Budgets were made with the calculated distances and device specifications, using Radio Mobile software, to finally plant a deployment model.La agricultura y en general los recursos naturales asociados al desarrollo de esta, como el agua, suelos y los bosques, cumplen un rol importante en el futuro de los países y la conservación del medio ambiente, por consiguiente se ha procurado la optimización de éstos recursos mediante la implementación de estrategias y herramientas tecnológicas que así lo posibiliten, tal como lo plantea (Perfetti, Balcázar, Hernández, & Leibovich, 2013). Se analizaron diferentes plataformas de hardware, protocolos de comunicación y sistemas operativos para motas, enfocados a las WSN (Wireless Sensor Network). Luego, se desarrolló un prototipo de monitorización de variables agrícolas para el cultivo de yuca en el Departamento del Atlántico, basado en la plataforma Z1 de la empresa Zolertia, programada a través del lenguaje Contiki y funcionando con el protocolo RPL (Routing Protocol for Low-Power and Lossy Networks - Protocolo de enrutamiento para redes de bajo consumo y pérdidas). La integración de las motas, el sistema operativo y el protocolo se evaluaron con métricas de rendimiento de pérdida de paquetes, RSSI (Received Signal Strength Indicator - Indicador de Fuerza de la Señal Recibida), LQI (Link Quality Indicator - Indicador de la Calidad de la Señal) y convergencia de la red, mostrando un buen funcionamiento a diferentes distancias. Posteriormente se realizó un modelo de despliegue basado en polígonos regulares, haciendo uso de las ecuaciones de Schläfli (la cantidad de nodos se pudo calcular evitando la aleatoriedad). Adicionalmente se calculó el rango de cobertura para los nodos obteniendo la distancia que deben tener entre sí para mantener la uniformidad en la red según lo sugerido en (Poe & Schmitt, 2009). Se realizaron presupuestos de enlaces de la red con las distancias calculadas y las características de los equipos, evaluados a través del software Radio Mobile, para finalmente plantear un modelo de despliegu