Wireless: interactions with agriculture & environment in developing and emerging regions

Simone SalaResearcher at Columbia University CICR, MIT-IBM NSRC, University of Milan DISAA

Practitioner in between the above

March 21, 2013International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) – Trieste, Italy

School on Applications of Open Spectrum and White Spaces Technologies

Index

1. Why should we care about Agriculture and Environment as Wireless people?

2. How can we tackle the Water-Energy-Food (WEF) nexus?

Why should we care about Agriculture/Environment as ICT people??Driving forces & Technology right in the middle

MarketDemocracy

Sustainability

Local Global

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Technology

Why should we care about Agriculture/Environment as ICT people??Driving forces & Technology right in the middle

MarketDemocracy

Sustainability

Local Global

Shor

t-ter

mLo

ng-te

rm

Technology

Why should we care about Agriculture/Environment as ICT people??Driving forces & Technology right in the middle

MarketDemocracy

Sustainability

Local Global

Shor

t-ter

mLo

ng-te

rm

Technology

Everyone

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Why should we care about Agriculture/Environment as ICT people??Driving forces & Technology right in the middle

MarketDemocracy

Sustainability

Local Global

Shor

t-ter

mLo

ng-te

rm

Technology

Why should we care about Agriculture/Environment as ICT people?? (1) Telecoms – Energy nexus

Why should we care about Agriculture/Environment as ICT people?? (1) Telecoms – Energy nexus

• Higher mobile telecom costs in developing & emerging regions…

Partly due to > costs of power supply to support continuity of service

Why should we care about Agriculture/Environment as ICT people?? (2) Energy – Climate nexus

• Anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions primary cause of global warming

• Most of emissions comes from burning fossil fuels – Agriculture as a top contributor too

Why should we care about Agriculture/Environment as ICT people??(3) Climate – Telecoms nexus

• Precipitation (especially heavy rainfall) affect satelite telecommunications– Rain fade signal absorption by air moisture and by

wetness on antenna surfaces

• Extreme events affect mobile telecommunications infrastructures

Why should we care about Agriculture/Environment as ICT people??(4) The whole WEF + climate nexus

WaterClimate

EnergyFood

• Increasing water, food & energy demand: +30/50% between 2010-2013 (World Economic Forum, 2011)

How can we tackle the Water-Energy-Food (WEF) nexus?TVWS & Energy/Climate

TVWS makes a difference in terms of: • Power consumption: low input & output power

– Works at low frequencies compared to other wireless networks

– Emerging TVWS protocols tend to minimize protocol overhead (hence > energy efficiency!)

• Weather susceptibility – TVWS is not affected by moisture in the air and by

wetness on antenna surfaces

How can we tackle the WEF nexus?Finding Wireless’ place

Record dataand information

Transform data and information into knowledge

Broadcast & Communicate

Information and Knowledge

Observation Analysis & Strategic Planning

Implementation &

Management

Capacity Building & Networking

Wireless can help

How can we tackle the WEF nexus?Wireless & climate change

Wireless can be a catalyzer for:

• Awareness raising on global/local climate issues– Dissemination of climate change awareness messages via low/high tech

• Monitoring of climate parameters and natural resources– Smartphone, sensors, remote sensing integration as a two-way channel for monitoring

• Climate change Mitigation– Track impact of carbon sequestration initiatives

• Adaptation to climate change– Dissemination of short-term information, knowledge sharing

How can we tackle the WEF nexus?Wireless & improved water distribution systems

• IXEM Lab’s Water Mole– Goal: recognize pipe damages or fluid leakages– Strategy: A wireless sensor measures liquid pressure

over time/frequency through a distribution network

http://www.ixem.polito.it/

How can we tackle the WEF nexus?Wireless & improved agri-food systems

• Many applications!

Greenhouse control

Animal feed control

Precision Farming

Weather

Agro-ecological Monitoring

Wireless

Traceability

Food packaging

Animal/crop identification

Transportation

How can we tackle the WEF nexus?Wireless & improved agri-food systems

• Pest monitoring & traceability system in Jamaica (Caribbean Agricultural Research and Development Institute, CARDI)

• Problem: fall of hot pepper exports to US because of pests (20M$/year, 50'000 workers)

• Solution: GPS-powered map ofproducers, provision of inspectors w/ portable devices to monitor production and track pest outbreaks

http://goo.gl/t2L5OF

Thank you!

Simone Sala

• Web: www.simonesala.it

• Twitter: @hereissimone

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, revisited