Environmental Monitoring using LoRaWAN technology
Gruppo SIGLA - a company of Relatech Group - and Italian CNR-IAS collaboration is progressing with its focus on cutting-edge technologies adoption. This synergy is working mostly on domains of the so-called Internet of Things (IoT). The main objectives are the implementation of environmental monitoring solutions and the experimentation of innovative communication technologies.
During autumn 2021, the two involved partners designed and executed the installation of an IoT solution to collect data on air quality in open ocean areas thanks to LoRaWAN sensors. In this context of collaboration, several sensors provided by Gruppo SIGLA were installed by CNR onto the existing research infrastructure (W1-M3A), which is one of the most important infrastructures National Research Council of Italy and it is part of the network of "deep ocean" European observatories. Located about 90 kilometers off the coast of Genoa, in the Ligurian Sea, in the middle of the "Sanctuary of the Cetaceans" 1200 meters from the seabed, the laboratory has been providing key data for over 20 years for the study of processes linked to climate change on the open ocean and deep-sea ecosystems.
The objective of this research activity is twofold: on one side the collection of air quality data and of other environmental parameters, on the other side the evaluation of the capabilities of solutions based on LoRaWAN sensors to perform in an optimal way the transmission of data collected over sea spaces at long range. This action is in line with the already executed installation of a LoRaWAN infrastructure (1 gateway and 1 air quality monitoring station) designed by the same two partners at the end of summer 2021 at CNR headquarters of Genova. The next step – already planned – consists in the installation of a further air quality monitoring station (LoRaWAN based) at CNR dock within the city harbor area. The objective is still the collection of environmental data and the experimentation of adopted sensing and communication solutions.
Gruppo SIGLA and CNR-IAS collaborate from at least a decade and along this time the two partners worked together on a number of projects to research and introduce innovative elements from the IT domain to monitor sea areas and environmental parameters relevant in that domain. Recently, they participated to PICKUP and TIAMO projects, funded by the Liguria Region.