Environmental monitoring of urban areas by using a remote sensor network

Abstract

Planning of sustainable development in a city depends on a lot of factors: policy, economy advantages, social justice and environmental safeguard. Technology evolution in the field of science can help in achieving one's aim. This paper concentrates the analysis on some new technologies of ICT (Information and Communications Technologies) activity. These, together with electronic nanotechnology development, allow more efficient management of data and tools that are indispensable for an efficient plan. WiFi and WiMAX (standards of wireless communications) devices, the Internet and GIS as Terrapack® are fundamental for developing a modern architecture of environmental management. Sensors distributed on the territory of an urban area define the WSN (Wireless Sensor Network). They use Internet Protocol (IP) for the link to the co-ordination station (central or local station): the SNS (Sensor Network Server). IP addressing allows device setup and the use of an Internet connection. This one increases enormously the number of potential data which can be included in the algorithms of environmental evaluations. We designed and tested the prototype architecture by use of LAN (Local Area Network) for controlling some detection sensors and standard monitoring devices such as a webcam. The WLAN (Wireless LAN) version of this architecture is carried out immediately in the case of a small monitoring area. A metropolitan area needs new technologies that are in the experimental phase or submitted to policy convenience. © 2007 WIT Press.