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IoT Time Preview: Social Conditions

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IoT Evolution, the leading media brand for the Internet of Things (IoT), has published a book outlining more than 150 of the leading trends in the IoT industry, entitled “IoT Time: Evolving Trends in the Internet of Things.” The book, written by IoT Evolution Editorial Director, Ken Briodagh, seeks to explore the factors that have shaped the recent past of the developing industry and use those to predict the trends that will drive the next period of growth. Each of the trends is explicated and illustrated with a case study or product review that supports each position.

In this weekly series, we’ll be previewing chapters for you to read in the hopes that you’ll like enough to read the whole thing. To do just that, for free, click here. Alternatively, there’s a paperback version available on Amazon for $14.99.

Chapter 16: Social Conditions
Trend: Solving pollution
Ocean Phoenix Project: A Wave of the Future

Serge Menard is the leader of the Ocean Phoenix Project, and President of SAS Ocean Phoenix, a commercial company established in southern France. The company’s main purpose is to finance and implement phase 1 of the project's Ocean Phoenix launch, as well as to pave the way for the development of the rest of the project in unison with the Ocean Phoenix organization's other structures, which include the Engineering Company, Maritime Operating Company, and the Ocean Phoenix Foundation. Menard created the Ocean Phoenix, which is a giant factory-ship that is able to retrieve, compress and pack the ocean pollution in accordance with road transportation regulations. The crew on this ship is responsible for the completion of the steps in order to meet these regulations.

“Thanks to the Ocean Phoenix, it is still possible to prevent an unprecedented ecological disaster, to save millions of seabirds and marine mammals, and preserve the Oceans around the world,” said Menard.

The ship picks up any type of waste that is in the ocean. That includes shipping containers, multi-ton logs, plastic waste and other forms of debris as well as micro-plastics, practically the size of plankton. There are twenty ships in the fleet and they are able to treat an area of roughly 3 million square kilometers in 10 years, or more with the aid of supplemental ships, depending on the total area of the waste layers. The Ocean Phoenix Project has partnered with The Offshore Partners B.V. Their objective when founded was to provide support and services on a contract or project management basis for the Offshore and Maritime Industry, tailored to their clients’ needs and requirements.

The Ocean Phoenix Project, in conjunction with the Offshore Partners, is doing its part to preserve our oceans and keep our world as ecologically clean and safe for marine life to grow in its habitat for the future generations. For many people, like Menard, the ocean represents hope for the future, so he and his company feel compelled to protect it and its underwater life to the best of their ability.

Trend: Air quality monitoring
Port of Hamburg Sets Course for IoT with Air Quality Measurement

Kii, an IoT Solution Enablement Platform provider, is working in Germany, collaborating with The Hamburg Port Authority (HPA) in a smart port project designed to record the emissions of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide and fine dust at various locations in the port of Hamburg using sensors. The technical management of the project was carried out by Kii in partnership with AQMesh, a manufacturer of air quality measuring devices. Emission values were collected over the Kii IoT platform and prepared for analysis during a three month period. The HPA was able to analyze the air quality at different locations in the port and, above all, test the functionality of different environmental sensors.

“The IoT pilot project has been very successful for us,” said Ulrich Baldauf, Head of IT Strategy, HPA. “We have been able to measure numerous parameters of air pollution live, e.g. the emission of particulate matter of particle size PM2.5 and PM10, or, in some cases, even nitrogen dioxides, which generally account for only 10 billionths of the total air. The Kii platform enabled us to collect the various data sources in a uniform manner and to prepare them for analysis.”

Reducing emissions in the port of Hamburg is a new solution being developed and tested, with the dual goal of not only measuring pollution but also identifying the sources of air pollution. The project leveraged wireless, battery-powered outdoor sensors for the measurement of air quality from AQMesh. Within the framework of the pilot project, sensors were placed at three different points of the harbor. The sensors detect nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide, particulate matter emissions and also provide data on temperature, air pressure or humidity, which are incorporated in later analyses by the HPA.

“With this IoT pilot project, not only have we shown that we can implement complex projects in a timely and affordable manner, but also that there is a potential for real-time emission measurement for the port of Hamburg,” said Martin Tantow, General Manager, EMEA, Kii. “Our IoT solution allowed us to install the sensors at critical points of the shipping and road network, to provide real-time visibility, and to prepare them for analysis. In Hamburg, Kii has demonstrated how effectively ports and cities can monitor air pollution through IoT.”

Trend: Conservation
Saving Water & Bringing Liquidity to Utilities with Senet and Trimble

It is no secret water is fast becoming one of our most critical and endangered natural resources, which is why Senet and Trimble Water, a technology company specializing in field and office solutions using network management to optimize water, wastewater and storm water utility operations, have created a solution together that represents an advancement of sensor-based approaches for the water management industry.

Trimble Water is a division of the company following an acquisition by Trimble of Telog Instruments, Inc. last year. Their technologies integrate positioning, sensors and mapping technologies with software and hardware to automate utility operations, from initial mapping, design, and construction to ongoing field operations. Their wireless water infrastructure IoT solution has been widely adopted in the U.S., in part due to regulatory requirements and related compliance and reporting challenges. They chose to work with Senet given the rapidly expanding scope of Senet’s Points-of-Presence (PoPs) throughout the U.S., and the architecture of the Senet network, which dramatically reduces battery drain, and therefore maintenance cycles and expenses.

Trimble is leveraging Senet’s wireless technology to enable water utilities to remotely measure and monitor water, wastewater and groundwater systems including water pressures, flows, levels and rainfall volumes, related to its LoRa-enabled Telog 41 Series of water monitoring sensors.

“Our new range of sensors bring monitoring capabilities including water system pressures, level monitoring to measure levels of water in various resources such as aquifers, reservoirs and towers, flow monitoring, pulse and event monitoring and rainfall monitoring,” Marcus McCarthy, GM of Trimble’s Water Division, explained. “These devices communicate with the Senet network at long distances, and because they also have a very long battery life, make it possible for us to deliver affordable and extremely competitive solutions to our customers.”

In an extensive report on the future and transformation of the water utility industry in the U.S., Ernst & Young highlighted the need to “strengthen the water innovation ecosystem by establishing industry frameworks for assessing and adopting new technologies. This would involve creating utility consortia to incubate, validate and promote new technologies and would reduce the need for emerging companies to undergo multiple field trials and encourage large utilities to set R&D budgets.”

E&Y goes on to say, “In the same way that staged clinical trials in the biotech industry allow investors, acquirers and end users to understand risk in that industry, a transparent, generally accepted framework for water technology assessment could help speed innovation adoption in the water sector.”

Such a coordinated industry effort on the technology front, particularly in IoT, could add up to meaningful improvements and contributions to sustainability even the world continues to grapple with record droughts and forecasts of increasingly scarce and expensive water supplies.

Trend: Municipal leadership
Mayors Explore Data-Driven Sustainability Solutions

London Mayor Sadiq Khan and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel are interested in Smarter Cities, and are putting time and effort into learning more. To that end, the two mayors toured the UI LABS facilities in Chicago, where they viewed a range of pilot projects aimed at improving urban environments. The event was an opportunity for the mayors to experience new technologies with the potential to improve how infrastructure is managed and maintained.

They visited UI LABS for demonstrations of pilot projects run by City Digital, a Chicago-based consortium focused on data-driven urban innovation. The event was part of Khan’s first visit to the United States as Mayor of London. Participants included Brenna Berman, CIO, City of Chicago; Steve Fifita, Executive Director, City Digital; and Caralynn Nowinski Collens, CEO, UI LABS. Prior to the pilot demonstrations, the Chicago Council on Global Affairs (CCGA) hosted a roundtable discussion at UI LABS including discussions on motivation and best practices for deploying green infrastructure in cities globally, as well as the potential role of on-going pilot projects. The discussion was moderated by Chicago's first Chief Sustainability Officer and current Senior Fellow on Global Cities with CCGA, Karen Weigert. The roundtable discussion featured representatives from City Digital's partner organizations, including the City of Chicago, Microsoft, Opti, various technology and consulting firms, and educational institutions.

As these major cities invest in ever-more Smart City solutions, looking for better efficiencies and citizen services, it’s important that the city leaders learn all that they can about the way to make these systems of things work better while maintaining security and citizen privacy.

In this weekly series, we’ll be previewing chapters for you to read in the hopes that you’ll like enough to read the whole thing. To do just that, for free, click here. Alternatively, there’s a paperback version available on Amazon for $14.99.




Edited by Ken Briodagh
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