Internet of Things in Geospatial Analytics

TL;DR

This paper explores how the integration of the Internet of Things with Digital Earth infrastructure can enhance geospatial analytics, addressing complex real-world problems through synergies and collaboration.

Contribution

It analyzes the potential and challenges of combining IoT and Digital Earth for improved geospatial data analysis and environmental monitoring.

Findings

Identified synergies between IoT and Digital Earth.

Discussed challenges in establishing collaboration.

Highlighted potential for addressing complex problems.

Abstract

Digital Earth was born with the aim of replicating the real world within the digital world. Many efforts have been made to observe and sense the Earth, both from space and by using in situ sensors. Focusing on the latter, advances in Digital Earth have established vital bridges to exploit these sensors and their networks by taking location as a key element. The current era of connectivity envisions that everything is connected to everything. The concept of the Internet of Things emerged as a holistic proposal to enable an ecosystem of varied, heterogeneous networked objects and devices to speak and interact with each other. To make the IoT ecosystem a reality, it is necessary to understand the electronic components, communication protocols, real-time analysis techniques, and the location of the objects and devices. The IoT ecosystem and the Digital Earth jointly form interrelated infrastructures for addressing modern pressing issues and complex challenges. In this chapter, we explore the synergies and frictions in establishing an efficient and permanent collaboration between the two infrastructures, in order to adequately address multidisciplinary and increasingly complex real-world problems. Although there are still some pending issues, the identified synergies generate optimism for a true collaboration between the Internet of Things and the Digital Earth.