How do you use environmental monitoring… at the beach? Just ask Kiawah Island Beach Community Association.

At the end of 2021, we surveyed over 200 environmental monitoring technicians, scientists, engineers, consultants and industry insiders on their views on the environmental monitoring industry

Their answers informed the first inaugural state of the industry report providing a  snapshot of industry direction and understanding of the current landscape. Here are some of the most interesting findings.

4 days ago millions of servers were compromised by the Log4shell software flaw.

IoT-based environmental monitoring (EIoT) systems usually bring most value to medium/longer term projects. 

The upfront capital cost of sensors, gateways and system design and install have prevented the use of remote environmental monitoring systems in the past.

Staff at the University of Queensland have deployed a low cost turbidity sensor commonly used in washing machines to accurately measure sediment loads in recent events.

Water quality monitoring is carried out for a number of reasons.  Businesses with environmental licences are required to monitor discharges to water or in the receiving environments to demonstrate compliance with licence conditions. Government departments and research organisations monitor water to understand how activities in a catchment affect water quality. To inform water quality models, to detect trends in water quality or events.  

Company size and reputation provide a strategic business edge (economies of scale, of marketing costs through proven branding, etc.) And yet, the business world graveyard is crammed with large, respected, oft-beloved companies who failed to innovate. In fact, 88% of the Fortune 500 companies that qualified in 1955 do not anymore, or ceased to exist.

3G/4G limits to IoT adoption for Environmental Monitoring

IoT-connected devices are expected to reach the 20 billion mark by 2020. Remote sensor networks can already track an astonishing, growing range of data sets, given sufficient internet infrastructure.

Ben Starr, Eagle.io, Brisbane Qld

The sad pictures of over a million native fish carcasses, floating along the Darling River in NSW, recently brought water quality into focus. Local residents found dead Murray Cod over 50 years old, a grim indication of the historical significance of the disaster.

What to consider when designing water monitoring systems?

In our previous blog we focused on how IoT is revolutionising contemporary water monitoring. Here we will look at the solutions. The best IoT based water monitoring should allow for these 3 essential capabilities and key criteria: