Page 43 - ITU Journal - ICT Discoveries - Volume 1, No. 2, December 2018 - Second special issue on Data for Good

ITU JOURNAL: ICT Discoveries, Vol. 1(2), December 2018

powerful tool to understand how we affect, as well such a system would be fairly cost efficient
as how we are affected by the environment, and compared with the introduction of weather radars,
how any negative impacts can be efficiently since only a software update is needed in the
mitigated. operator networks.

To measure and understand rainfall with high detail Later on, with the introduction of detailed rain
and high time resolution with microwave assisted monitoring in many emerging markets, new
data, as presented in Section 2, can give valuable services and solutions can be introduced. One such
insights for future forecasting and flow calculations solution can be micro-insurances for farmers where
in cities, especially when climate change is expected rain data is vital to calculate insurance rates as well
to change rainfall patterns in some parts of the as insurance pay outs. Another service is malaria
world. Better detection and predictions of rainfall prevention, since there is a correlation between
can thus lead to early mitigation efforts to hinder heavy rainfall and malaria outbreaks [23]; timely
flooding, such as investments in efficient storm mitigation efforts such as pesticide spraying, could
water systems, but also to be able to alert citizens at be introduced after detected heavy rainfalls in
an early stage of a potential flooding event. Further malaria infested areas.
interesting applications and use cases are towards
the insurance industry, where a need for detailed In the same way, sensor-based, real-time water
rain patterns are desired to be able to develop risk quality data can be used by cities to identify
schemes and insurance policies. potential pollution or pathogenic contamination in
rivers, lakes and water sources. Digital water
However, the most versatile and interesting use for monitoring can thus minimize the amount of
digital rain measurements through microwave links manual sampling needed and direct sampling to
could be in emerging markets, where accurate and potentially polluted water areas. Furthermore,
reliable weather monitoring solutions are scarce. through the introduction of AI functionalities,
Today, most weather radars are located in pollution movements and diffusion in water areas
industrialized countries, where most emerging could be monitored, and potentially traced back to
markets rely only on monitoring by manual gauges. their sources. The availability of long-term water
An indication of the worldwide weather radar quality data on a massive scale can be a tool to
coverage can be seen in Fig. 4 from the World monitor the overall health of our water sources as
Meteorological Organization (WMO) radar data- well as potentially report such data to authorities.
base [22]. It can be seen that many parts of the
world completely lack radar coverage. Another aspect of pollution detection in water is the
monitoring of fresh water distribution systems,
where pathogenic pollutants can be detected using
novel sensing technologies for bacteria detection
[24]. The combination of novel sensor solutions
with traditional physical and chemical sensor
systems can thus enable a powerful use of IoT for
water quality monitoring solutions.

Finally, by integrating solutions such as real-time
rain detection and water quality monitoring, with
other smart city solutions, such as real-time traffic
Fig. 4 – Worldwide radar coverage (WMO radar database) and connected transport systems, a comprehensive
tool for the smart city could be developed. As an
The total amount of microwave links and radios example, detection of heavy rains would be
globally are around 10 million, deployed both in facilitated, where any potential flooding of streets
industrialized as well as emerging markets. Hence, could be monitored and projected. Hence, any
there is both a need and an opportunity for digital traffic in the area could be warned and directed to
rain data for many parts of the world, where alternative routings, avoiding congestion problems
microwave links could be an alternative to weather and any potential material damages and risks to
radars as well as to serve regions where today there human life. Furthermore, by being able to monitor
are no weather radars at all. The deployment of traffic as well as water pollution, any correlation

© International Telecommunication Union, 2018 21