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.