Use of modern communication technologies IoT
for Natural resource conservation -Water
1st Pradeep Vankayala
College of Tecnology
Indiana State University
Terre Haute, IN 47809
2nd Manjunath Vankayala
Southern Railway
Tamil Nadu, India
dyceephq@sr.railnet.gov.in
pvankayala@sycamores.indstate.edu
Abstract— Population has been growing in the world from the
start of the homo sapiens who ever walked earth to this day.
Based on the Population Reference Bureau (PRB), current 7.5
billion population is just about 7 percent of the entire population
that has ever lived on earth. There are around 108 billion people
ever born on earth over last 50,000 years ago and it is expected to
grow to 113 billion by 2050. Rate at which population is growing
and the rate at which earth resources are depleting, we are in a
state where we need to innovate how we do irrigation /agriculture
and use resources like water.Around the world developed as well
developing countries depend on natural resources to take their
county ahead in the globalization. So, we need to be innovative in
terms of using the resources wisely. In this paper, I will discuss
how we can use latest developments in the wireless technologies
for the agriculture and for other industrial purposes, so that we
can reduce the rate at which natural resource depletion is
happening.
Keywords: Population, resources, natural, irrigation, agriculture,
globalization, innovative, wireless technologies
I. INTRODUCTION
Based on United Nations statistical year book there are
around 7 billion people on earth (Kremer, 1993). Just about
two hundred years ago there had been less than a billion
humans on this planet. Recent estimate suggests that modern
day population is about 7 percent of the entire variety of
people ever born from the start of ‘Modern’ homo- sapiens
(that, people who were roughly like we are now (Ortiz-Ospina,
2017). It is the most noticeable fact that world population has
grown over hundreds of years, but the growth was slow,
interestingly in the last century it has jumped dramatically.
Between 1900 and 2000, the growth in the world population
was at least three times greater than the growth from the
beginning of humanity. In the last hundred years the
population growth was from 1.5 billion to 6.5 billion.
Population growth is driving all our resource problems such
as water and energy and all three (population, water, energy)
are intertwined. For example, in the United States there are
978-1-7281-1253-4/19/$31.00 © 2019 IEEE
around 320 million people (U.S. and World Population Clock,
2018) out of 7.5 billion on the earth, but all the resources are
being shared among these population equally. With this rate of
growth, it is very difficult to sustain the people’s needs with
the resources that surround us. In the recent years United
States is experiencing rapid population growth at a rate on par
with other developed countries along with food production
hence increased water use. It is a common practice in most
countries to mine the ground water to irrigate scorched or
semi-arid land which won’t work in the long run (Fitzpatrick,
2008).
Energy and water usage is related, as water resources
deplete, it is necessary to use more energy to lift the water out
of the ground. More people that means more water use to
produce more food and hence more energy. It is not a
sustainable way of preserving the natural resources.
Advancements in the latest wireless technologies would
help in producing the food in a sustainable way, meaning a
resource that continuously replenished or endless amount that
can be harnessed toward providing energy without
diminishing the supply. Wireless technologies like Internet,
telematics etc. will help modernize the agriculture or irrigation
methods so that the “smart agriculture” would use the
resources efficiently especially ground water and increase
production to feed the population. It is only logical to have all
the necessary automation and technology in the world in place
to save all the necessary resources like water by implementing
telematics to sprinkle the right amount of water, control of the
soil moisture, right time to cut crops, track weather for the
corps to grow etc.,
II. OVERVIEW OF WORLD POPULATION AND GROWTH
Population of the world is growing rapidly and
unpredictably. The very question we need to ask is: “Is there
any un-even distribution of population over time?”
(BUREAU, 2009). What is the impact of all other illness like
HIV/AIDS on population growth? Population growth happens
through natural way when birth rate exceeds the death rate.
For example, in 2005, there was 14 births per 1000 people in
US and death rate was 8, this yields net increase of six persons
for every 1000 people, that adds up to 1.7 million to the
population. Rate of natural increase of population growth is
mostly influenced by age structure of population, that means
births occur to people with younger -adult age groups. In the
United States, birth rates are higher than death rate due to
relatively young age groups. But many couples are having one
or two children, which still produce a large excess of births.
This phenomenon is known as population momentum
(BUREAU, 2009).
Figure 2UN projection of mortality and fertility rate
(Roser, n.d.)
Fertility rate is driven by the socio- economic statue of the
population, especially wellbeing of women in the society.
Early developing societies are the first to transition much
earlier than the rest of the world and poor societies took longer
time. Based on UN reports European, Americans reached a
replacement point when Asia and Latin America started to
decline. Africa was the last to reach the replacement point
because of poverty.
Figure 1 Growth rate of population until 2100 (Roser, n.d.)
As discussed above, after the world population growth
surpassed 400 % over last century, population growth has
slowed down. Based on the historical analysis, the fastest
world population growth reached its pinnacle in 1960 and
falling since. There are three primary factors for global
population growth: mortality (death rate), fertility rate (birth
rate) and population momentum (Roser, n.d.). During 1960 the
fertility rate was around 5 children per woman and halved
since then. Most of the national and international agencies are
producing projections to avoid uncertainty in the growth
(Wolfgang Lutz, 1997).
Projections are either single
projection or a multiple variant and very rarely these
projections are probabilistic interpretation. To understand the
population growth on a global level, it is not a good idea to
use time series analysis because of the un-adequate data to
validate the facts. Probabilistic projections are only used for
developed countries.
Potential future growth of population is studied through
population pyramids (BOUCHER, 2016), which is a
combination of age and sex structure in a country. We can
represent growth in four ways – rapid, slow, zero and negative
growth. These graphs are used to determine the extent of
development for a given population. But we can also use these
graphs/ pyramids to understand the resource consumption and
hence understand the future implications. UN reports
confirmed that most developed countries have zero or negative
population growth. Short term fluctuations in birth to death
rate results in unusual pyramids such as wars, epidemics,
economic depressions. It emphasizes the interrelation among
population growth, economic, social,natural and health
factors.
III. OVERVIEW OF NATURAL RESOURCE (WATER) AND USE
“The ‘environment’ is where we live; and development is
what we all do in attempting to improve our lot within that
abode. The two are inseparable.” (Programme, 2007)
Natural resources are the resources that occur within the
environment in their original form. It takes years to form
these resources as these are part of evolution that happened
on this earth for millions of years. Some resources are
necessary for the life on earth to survive like water, air
while some of them are used for daily needs. Each of the
resource on this planet has its own importance ranging
from forests to mountains and seas to wetlands (Rinkesh,
n.d.)
Natural resources, including materials, like water, energy
and land are basis for the life on planet earth. However due to
978-1-7281-1253-4/19/$31.00 © 2019 IEEE
the modernization and rapid consumption of these resources
serious damaging is occurring (earth, 2000). Our climate is
rapidly changing, water resources either on the ground or in
the ground are depleting, fish stocks and forests are also
shrinking. Due to industrialization our fertile lands are being
used and destroyed in the process, that endangers species. To
thrive on this planet, our way of living should be sustainable
so that we should be able to protect our natural resources.
Based on the report published by United Nation in 2007,
Consumption of resources is rapid because of the growth in
the population. In 1987, there are around 5 billion people
globally,in less than 20 years the population have grown to 7.7
billion, which is very rapid. Over the years the GDP capita
(purchasing power) has increased from US $5927 in 1987 to
US$8162 in 2004. But the growth was not equally distributed
among the regions as the certain Western countries growth is
more as compared to Asian countries (Programme, 2007).
Growth of the population triggers economic growth
simultaneously, that in turn increases consumption of
resources to sustain the development. In 1987, United Nations
World Commission on Environment and Development
(WCED) recognized that there is an interlink among
environmental, social and economic issues. It is advised that
in the sustainable development process the“decisionmaking”should include above factors.
Degradation of the environment is due to excessive use of
natural resources is undermining the current development and
puts the future developments in jeopardy. Availability of
resource is not abundant, so countries should implement
policies to consume them responsibly and technology would
help in regulating (Biswas, 1985). Based on the UN reports,
resource consumption is high in developed countries than in
the developing countries and there is an un-even resource
usage pattern is observed. Due to the un-even usage
contributed to the deterioration of resources as well as the
quality of the environment. The way we utilize assets incites
regularly irreversible environmental change. Also, developing
countries should be mindful in using resources by
implementing ecological principles underlying their
sustainability is respected (UBA, 2014)
To understand natural resource usage, we need to
understand “Earth Overshoot Day” for the last three decades.
Earth Overshoot Day means the day humans have used up all
their allowance of natural resources that Earth can replenish in
one year (Nace, 2017). According to Global Footprint
Network (GFN) which takes water, air, carbon footprint, soil
etc. into consideration to come up with a specific day in a year
as Earth Overshoot Day (EOD). For 2017, the EOD was
calculated as Aug 2, started from 1986 GFN has been
calculating EOD every year. In the ’80s the EOD landed in
November. In over a decade the EOD jumped to October and
for the next ten years, it was around September till 2000. Now
the EOD is in August. According to statistics by GFN, to
offset our natural resource use every year humans require 1.7
planets (Nace, 2017).
Is water getting scarce? After all planets, water resources
are not dropped completely, but we need to understand that
978-1-7281-1253-4/19/$31.00 © 2019 IEEE
they are finite. It is important to integrate water usage to
locally available water in an adequate and sustainable way.
Based on the data gathered by the Global Agriculture
organization, Agriculture is the largest consumer, so far, of the
Earth’s water resources: 70% of groundwater is for
agricultural usage. It is estimated that the global demand for
water-related to irrigation/agriculture is estimated to increase
19% by 2050 and 40% of the current world’s agricultural
products are cultivated by using artificial methods and areas
(Global Agriculture, 2016)
IV. WIRELESS TECHNOLOGIES AND ADVANCEMENTS
Wireless means transmitting or communicating the
information over a long distance without requiring any
physical medium like wires, cables or any other electrical
conductors. Wireless communication is the way of
transmitting information to other devices without any medium
of physical in nature (Wireless Communication Technologies
Types and Advantages, n.d.).
Once the communication is set and the information is
transmitted over the air, not by any cables, using
electromagnetic signals like radio, microwave or infrared.
Over a past few decades wireless communication has
significantly changed the way communication happens.
Starting with wired communication to the current era of
wireless communication, today we refer to a variety of devices
and technologies like smartphones, computers etc. are the
evidence of the advancement in this field. In the case of the
wireless system, it provides an endpoint with access to a
distributed network to communicate to the bigger network.
Figure 3Types of wireless communication (Wireless
Communication Technologies Types and Advantages, n.d.)
The demand for wireless technologies is exploding, with new
technologies in the market and demand for services offered by
traditional analog networks is reaching its pinnacle, wireless
technologies and communication is the way to go in future and
satisfy increasing earth populations needs. In the beginning,
digital technologies were introduced to increase the spectral
efficiency and with digital technologies, many features were
added like facsimile, information exchange and new call
handling features. Evolution of wireless communication is
significant that the first generation of an analog system is
meant for business applications and the second generation of
digital is totally focused on personal as well as business
applications. International Mobile Telecommunications-2000
(IMT-2000) is developing new standards to cater to the needs
of future global wireless communication within the
International Telecommunication Union (ITU) (Chen, 1998)
(Chen, 1998). With IMT-2000 it is expected to have faster
data transfer speeds and enables the world to have features
which need higher speeds like multi-media, voice, location
services etc. There are many applications with new wireless
technologies like in the field of biomedical, agriculture and
smart irrigation, oil drilling, smart health care become
practical very soon.
With the ever-increasing global population, it is upon the
current generation to act fast and save earth’s natural resources
for future generations. IMT-2000 enabled us to implement
technology in a way it is deemed impossible in the past. We
can implement new applications using new wireless
technologies and standards to consume resources based on the
need and reduce wastage. In this paper, we will discuss how
the implementation of IoT (Internet of Things) would help us
conserve more resources and at the same time provide good
results in the field of irrigation /agriculture. For centuries,
people were following traditional methods of farming and
using resources without any need to check for consequences,
but this scenario was changed starting 1970’s when there was
an industrial revolution that changed the face of the world.
With the industrial revolution the need for essential resources
like water, gas has changed. To develop a country, it is
necessary to have plenty of resources, that puts a reservation
on other fields. In this current era of fast developments,
irrigation is one of the fields which was put on the back seat
and forgot that it is the backbone for any civilization to
nourish.
VI. USE OF WIRELESS TECHNOLOGY FOR IRRIGATION
For the world’s economy to develop steadily and sustainably
we must learn to use resources like water wisely, this is
appropriate in the case of irrigation. In the modern era of
advancements, fields like irrigation would benefit more and
help to reduce the usage of resources to cultivate food
products to feed the world population (Li, 2012). To conserve
resources and effectively reduce the impact of inadequate
resource it is necessary to combine irrigation cultures and
modern technologies like principles of the Internet and
wireless sensor technologies called the internet of things (IOT)
technology. According to Global agriculture organization,
69% of world freshwater withdrawals are used for agriculture,
19 % is accounted for the industrial sector whereas only 12 %
is deemed for household purposes (GlobalAgriculture, 2016).
978-1-7281-1253-4/19/$31.00 © 2019 IEEE
In the field of medicine, data collection and analysing is very
critical. Over the past few decades, Information Technology
and Telecommunication technologies have improved many
folds and it has the potential to improve the quality of health
care system (Kioumars & Tang, 2014) using wireless sensors
or using the Internet of Things (IoT). IT along with wireless
technologies enables service providers to provide services to
their patients to electronically and interact with the collected
data without patient’s knowledge. The rapid development of
information enabled telecommunication – called telematicsare driving the technical community to create a new type of
information infrastructure. These technologies have the
potential to implement an array of services ranging from
health care to irrigation to transportation to intelligent traffic
system. This paper is meant to provide insights into the
irrigation system with the latest telecommunication
technologies. IT allows farmers to collect, store, process, and
transfer information electronically.
From the starting of the 21st century, access to wireless
technologies has increased rapidly. It is estimated that we have
more mobile devices in the world as compared to the
population. Over a decade, wireless technologies have
influenced our society and our way of doing business (David
L. Sunding, 2016). For example, it is estimated that ninetyeight percent of Americans have access to wireless services,
so it is no surprise that wireless technologies can be used in
many fields like irrigation and yields great results to farmers.
Agriculture is essential for any country to compete in the
global economy both in terms of products and use of natural
resources that put in place for the same. Use of natural
resources by agricultural field is totally disproportionate.
Farmers access to the internet had grown to sixty- seven
percent in the US over the past decade and access to the
internet through wireless is increased by twenty-seven percent.
Use of wireless and cellular technologies among farmers in the
US is continuing to rise, twenty-ninety percent of farmers are
using wireless mode to access the internet. Adoption of
wireless technologies in food production and irrigation is
enormous. As we know farming is a risky affair, farmers must
deal with natural disasters, unpredictable rains, and fluctuating
commodity markets. Using local area along with wireless
networks, farmers are now able to access the critical
information about their fields like soil quality, air quality, the
temperature needed, water needed for the corp. With 3G & 4
G technologies, farmers will be able to access real-time
information on their smartphones & tablets about market
conditions, fluctuation in the commodity prices and their farm
remotely. Wireless technologies will help in solving two
problems related to water for farmers, 1. scarcity and 2.
environmental effects. As discussed earlier, water has become
scarce in most of the countries as we speak, so the nations are
struggling to provide necessity like water to the population. In
these conditions, it is very difficult for farmers to use water for
their irrigation as it was a century ago. As water becomes
scarce, this, in turn, increases the farmer's irrigation costs, that
cuts the profits and hence vitality of the agriculture itself.
Wireless technologies will help farmers to minimize water
usage like over and under-watering to their crops (Irmak,
2014). For example, if we install a soil monitoring sensor in
the fields, wireless technology will allow farmers to access
real-time soil moisture information of their fields. Based on
the data, now farmers can use wireless technology to regulate
the water needs of their soil either by switch off their irrigator
remotely or adjust the irrigator based on the crops' water needs
(David L. Sunding, 2016). By controlling the inputs like
watering, farmers are conserving environmental resources
more efficiently. Based on the United States Department of
Agriculture' ("USDA") report about “Sustainable Agriculture:
Definitions and Terms “- Water conservation in the field of
irrigation and food production is an important component of
any nations development. Sustainable agriculture will help to
ensure that we can help the society today without
compromising the welfare of future generations. It can be
achieved by enabling farmers to use water efficiently using
rapidly developing wireless technology and hence increases
profits by reducing the operational costs (Gold, 2007).
Figure 4Telematics for Irrigation (Get Weather Data from
Your Most Remote Growing Area, 2018)
With advancements in telematics and wireless technologies,
farmers can use a telematics system as a backbone to improve
the quality of irrigation by collecting various vital information
about their soil, weather like temperature, humidity and wind
directions etc., within the area along with market prices for the
crop that is being cultivated by the farmer. A method to collect
such data is by using soil moisture sensors, to measure soil
water content and transmit data to remote decision centres
wirelessly and to farmers to their smartphone or tablets to
review. These systems interconnect to each other via cellular
or satellite modems. Information like soil moisture can be
collected at regular intervals, often as every 30 minutes to 1
hour depends on the farmers need. There are multiple
entrepreneurial initiations by innovative people in the field of
IoT for irrigation, these technology firms are now using
affordable cloud-based systems /solutions to analyze data by
means of collecting soil sensor data to share the decisions to
farmers
978-1-7281-1253-4/19/$31.00 © 2019 IEEE
VII.
AN INNOVATIVE METHOD FOR FUTURE OF IRRIGATION
So far, we have discussed a method of collecting data using
sensors within the field and transfer data by the means of
telematics to smartphones or tablets that lets the farmers view
real-time data. One problem with this approach is that farmers
are getting information about their field but it is vital to know
about other farmers within the same region. Farming at this
age of information technology is all about efficiency and earn
more profits. To achieve the results we want, it is not about
hard work at the field but smart work that goes from choosing
the crop till the produce reaches the market. To explain this
further, hypothetically we are choosing the USA, to describe
the model. Let’s say that Indiana state is a leading producer of
corn and soybean, other important crops are wheat and hay.
Also, Tomatoes are categorized as the leading "vegetable"
crop and other vegetables are cucumbers, onions, potatoes,
sweet corn along with this apples, blueberries, and
watermelons are the fruit crops (NSTATE, 2017).
To efficiently manage the food production, every farmer tries
to choose the crop which will yield the greater profits. In this
case, we need to have a model that starts with USDA, as this is
the organization that collects and manages the information
regarding the crops across the United States of America along
with the market conditions that may give greater profits. Let’s
say that when farmers register with USDA's Irrigation portal
with their location, then USDA must suggest what crop could
give them greater profits. This would allow farmers not to
irrigate the same crop and end up getting fewer profits. Also, it
will give a precise idea of how much of the natural resources
that are needed for the crop and eliminates the competition for
natural resource usage. Once the crop has been chosen and
planted, then based on the sensors that are installed in the crop
for soil moisture checking, air quality, temperature, wind,
humidity, the information will be sent to farmers along with
central data centre where the decisions related to efficient
farming will be analysed. Based on the weather condition,
USDA's Irrigation portal will send a notification to farmers
whether to water the plants or not and how much to water. So,
this would help to eliminate problems like over-watering as
well under- watering and hence the conserve natural resources
that are much needed.
[6]
[7]
[8]
[9]
[10]
[11]
[12]
[13]
Figure 5Innovative Irrigation Model
[14]
[15]
[16]
VIII.
CONCLUSIONS
Based on the current population growth and resource
utilization on planet earth, it is very critical to implement
innovative methods to converse natural resources as much as
possible. Due to the fast depletion of natural resources which
are not renewable like water are posing a threat to human
survival. As mentioned irrigation is necessary for any nations
growth, so our innovative model is targeting to address the
issue.
[17]
[18]
[19]
[20]
[21]
[22]
REFERENCES
[1]
[2]
[3]
[4]
[5]
Biswas, M. R. (1985). The global environment past,present and future.
Sciencedirect, 18.
BOUCHER, L. (2016, March 10). What are the different types of
population
pyramids?
Retrieved
from
https://populationeducation.org/what-are-different-types-populationpyramids/.
BUREAU, P. R. (2009, July 1). Human Population: Lesson Plans.
Retrieved from https://www.prb.org/humanpopulation/.
Chen, A. (1998). Advances in wireless communications technologies
and their potential biomedical applications. IEEE , 6.
David L. Sunding, M. R. (2016, April 27). United States: The Farmer
And The Data: How Wireless Technology Is Transforming Water Use
978-1-7281-1253-4/19/$31.00 © 2019 IEEE
[23]
[24]
[25]
[26]
In
Agriculture.
Retrieved
from
mondaq:
http://www.mondaq.com/unitedstates/x/487024/Telecommunications+
Mobile+Cable+Communications/The+Farmer+And+The+Data+How+
Wireless+Technology+Is+Transforming+Water+Use+In+Agriculture
earth, F. o. (2000). OVERCONSUMPTION?Our use of the world´s
natural resources. Friends of earth.
Fitzpatrick, T. (2008, October 22). Population growth drives depletion
of
natural
resources.
Retrieved
from
https://source.wustl.edu/2008/10/population-growth-drives-depletionof-natural-resources/.
Get Weather Data From Your Most Remote Growing Area. (2018).
Retrieved
from
davisinstruments:
https://www.davisinstruments.com/case-study/remote-weather/
GlobalAgriculture. (2016). Water. GlobalAgriculture. Retrieved from
GlobalAgriculture.
Gold, M. V. (2007, August). Sustainable Agriculture: Definitions and
Terms. Retrieved from United States Deparment of Agriculture:
https://www.nal.usda.gov/afsic/sustainable-agriculture-definitions-andterms
Irmak, S. (2014). Plant Growth and Yield as Affected by Wet Soil
Conditions Due to Flooding or Over-Irrigation. Nebraska: University
of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension, Institute of Agriculture and Natural
Resources.
KANEDA, T. (2018, March 9). How Many People Have Ever Lived on
Earth?
Retrieved
from
https://www.prb.org/howmanypeoplehaveeverlivedonearth/.
Kioumars, A. H., & Tang, L. (2014). Wireless component-based health
data acquisition and monitoring system. IEEE Conference on Industrial
Electronics and Applications, 3.
Kremer, M. (1993). Population growth and Technological change: One
Million B.C to 1990. Quartely journal of economics.
Li, S. (2012). Application of the Internet of Things Technology in
Precision Agriculture IRrigation Systems. IEEE, 2.
Nace, T. (2017, August 3). Humanity Has Officially Consumed More
Than Earth Can Produce This Year. Retrieved from Humanity Has
Officially Consumed More Than Earth Can Produce This Year:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/trevornace/2017/08/03/humanityofficially-consumed-more-earth-produce-year/#1eae615459a4
NSTATE. (2017, December 19). Indiana Economy. Retrieved from
Indiana: http://www.netstate.com/economy/in_economy.htm
Ortiz-Ospina, M. R. (2017, April). World Population Growth.
Retrieved
from
https://ourworldindata.org/world-populationgrowth#note-2.
Philippot, L.-M. (2010). Natural Resources and Economic
Development in Transition Economies. November.
Programme, U. N. (2007). Global Environment Outlook. New York:
United Nations Environment Programme.
Rinkesh. (n.d.). What are Natural Resources? Retrieved from
www.conserve-energy-future.com:
https://www.conserve-energyfuture.com/list-10-natural-resources.php
Roser, M. (n.d.). Future Population Growth. Retrieved from
https://ourworldindata.org/future-population-growth.
U.S. and World Population Clock. (2018, September 15). Retrieved
from https://www.census.gov/popclock/.
UBA, T. (2014, 01 23). Resource use and its consequences. Retrieved
from
Resource
use
and
its
consequences:
https://www.umweltbundesamt.de/en/topics/waste-resources/resourceuse-its-consequences
Wireless Communication Technologies Types and Advantages. (n.d.).
Retrieved from Wireless Communication Technologies Types and
Advantages:
https://www.efxkits.us/different-types-of-wirelesscommunication-technologies/
Wolfgang Lutz, W. S. (1997). Doubling of world population unlikely.
nature,
803-805.