In Piegaro, in the province of Perugia, was born the first “talking forest” in the trees communicate with each other thanks to special IOT sensors powered by photovoltaic panels.
Trees also speak. For the moment, however, only those in the forest of Piegaro. In this hamlet of the municipality of Città della Pieve (province of Perugia) the first interactive talking and sounding forest was born. The project was carried out by the Euro-Mediterranean Centre on Climate Change (Cmcc) and is the first application of the Internet of Things (IOT) to the plant world. Thanks to the IOT, objects become recognizable and acquire intelligence by being able to communicate data about themselves and access aggregate information from others. So, for example, alarm clocks ring first in case of traffic or medicine jars send us a notification on our smartphone if we forget to take a medicine. In the forest of Piegaro, the IOT has been applied to trees. The result is a real talking forest. In practice, special sensors powered by photovoltaic panels have been installed on thirty sentinel trees of different species. These devices are able to detect eco-physiological parameters (light, colour bands, wavelength, water transported to the plant, diametric growth of the tree and measurement of carbon storage) and communicate them in real time to the control centre. The project has taken the name “Trace -Talking tree” and aims to control the forest heritage and improve environmental monitoring capabilities thanks to new technologies.
You might also be interested in —> Wooden wind turbines, the evolution of renewable energy
The talking forest of Piegaro
The “talking trees” that populate the talking forest of Piegaro were imagined by Professor Riccardo Valentini, member of the Cmcc awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 together with other scientists of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (Ipcc). “In the current fragile conditions in which terrestrial ecosystems are affected by climate change, forest management and certification play an increasingly important role,” explained Professor Valentini. The forest of Piegaro has also obtained Pefc (Programme for the recognition of national forest certification schemes) certification for technological innovation and sustainable management of trees through the internet of things. “By integrating and installing the latest generation IOT technologies in a small-scale monitoring network in the Piegaro forest, we intend to demonstrate and promote the usefulness of this technology also for forest certification so as to spread it rapidly on a large scale and with low costs”, said Antonio Brunori, Secretary General of Pefc Italia.
You might also be interested in —> Airlite: the “smog-eating” paint that purifies the air