Real Time Visibility Could Make Us a Whole Lot Smarter

Perhaps the best way to live in balance with our planet and the interdependent ecosystems that support our life is to make those ecosystems visible. Seeing is believing. If all of us (not just select groups of experts) can see what’s happening as it happens then maybe we can all figure out what we need to do.

Traditional approaches to managing our environment call for selected groups of experts to collect reams of data and publish their findings and recommendations in lengthy reports which are then used (in a greater or lesser degree) to formulate rules and regulations to control the behavior of the rest of us. A new approach is to build networks of environmental sensors and combine the data streams coming from those sensors into real time displays that show everyone what’s happening so all of us can participate in deciding what needs to be done. I wonder which approach will prove to be more effective.

The Irish government is experimenting with this new approach in a project to better understand and manage the ecosystem and natural resources of Galway Bay on the west coast of Ireland.


(Satellite photo courtesy of The WIKIMEDIA COMMONS Atlas of the World)

The Ireland Marine Institute has partnered with IBM to deploy a network of sensors for monitoring conditions in the bay. This is the first phase in the creation of the SmartBay Environmental Monitoring System and it is now sending real time data back to the Marine Institute where it is used to create real time dashboards and maps for use by different constituencies (fishermen, tourists, ship captains, government agencies, etc.) to respond appropriately as conditions change. This proect is a glimpse of how we humans can learn how to live in balance with our world.

Technology Used and What the Sensor Network Measures

I recently spoke with Alan Ganek the CTO and VP of Strategy and Technology of IBM’s Software Group. Alan is a leader in IBM's cross-company initiatives such as Smarter Planet, cloud computing, and Green technology. Alan explained that they have been working with the Ireland Marine Institute to design and deploy a network of sensors tied to buoys that were deployed in Galway Bay this summer. The sensor buoys were built by the Dublin based company TechWorks Marine. Here’s a picture from the Marine Institute website that shows what they look like.

 
(Photo courtesy of Ireland Marine Institute - photo by Phil Trickett)

Each SmartBay buoy supports an array of advanced ocean sensors that collect and transmit real time information on ocean conditions that will benefit scientists, commercial fishermen, fish farmers, environmental monitoring agencies and the general public. The buoys transmit their data via a wireless WiMAX network to the Marine Institute where the data is displayed via a web portal that shows real time conditions in the bay. The different constituencies of people using this portal can easily access the data that is of most interest to them.

The sensors on the buoys are loaded with IBM software and new versions of this software can be remotely downloaded via WiMAX as needed. At present the sensors are measuring environmental conditions in the bay such as air and sea temperature, wind velocity, rainfall, currents and tides, wave action and chemical makeup of the seawater.

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