Design and Implementation of a Low-Cost LoRa-Based Sensor Node for Environmental Monitoring in Uganda
Abstract
Information about the environment plays a
crucial role in effective planning and decision-making
processes concerning environmental sustainability. Various
environmental parameters such as ambient temperature
and humidity, rainfall, wind speed and wind direction,
radiation, etc can be tracked to understand how the
environment is changing, usually due to human activities.
Over the years, efforts have been made to collect this
information from many parts of Uganda. Despite these
efforts, there is still a gap in the volume of data available
to characterise the environment, most especially on a small
scale. This is mainly caused by the high cost of current
measurement devices which has greatly limited their use.
In this study, the development of a LoRa-based low-cost,
low-power sensor node is described in detail. This sensor
node will be used to monitor the environment’s humidity,
temperature, and particulate matter levels.