Abstract

Preservation of National Parks safeguards forest environment where it becomes home for wild animals and varieties of plants. We human beings also depend on the trees for our livelihood by using oxygen from the trees. However, illegal logging has been the greatest threat for national park conservation as precious tree such as sandalwood and teak smuggling is common in every country. Traditionally, monitoring the forest has been a difficult task as forest rangers usually collect data by visiting the forest environment in person. As the forest cover is stretched across the large geographical areas, manually monitoring the forest seems an impossible task to eradicate illegal activities.

In this paper, we are going to discuss IoT based forest monitoring solutions to detect illegal logging with the use of IoT devices interconnected with each other by wireless network technology to transmit data from the forest environment to the receiving end. The study will focus on data collection using various IoT devices, wireless network technology for data transmission, and smartphone or web application for the data display. It also highlights how illegally transported logs can be retrieved using a tracking system. This project aims to help the Department of the forest to real-time monitor trees to implement preventive measures and tracing solutions to locate the illegally obtained timber to find out the smuggler.

 

Keywords- IoT, smugglers, illegal logging, real-time monitoring

 

1. Introduction
   • Introduce the problem

Illegal logging has been a very regretful issue in the field of National Parks protection and overall environment conservation. This issue of tree smuggling is unable to eradicate despite technological advancement and implementation of strict rules and regulations imposed by the Governments. If this problem of illegal logging is not tackled effectively, then the deforestation will be the consequences to be borne by the community and the entire population as a whole. The IoT based and remote sensing Forest monitoring solution has been proposed to handle the tree smuggling. According to Bharad and Jorvekar (2020), after thoroughly studying the ten Forest Monitoring research paper, it was found that most of the system consists of three parts: data collection, data processing, and data storage and display. The study of twelve papers relevant to illegal logging prevention was useful in determining feasible IoT solutions, IoT devices, and network protocols for detecting illegal logging to reduce cost and improve productivity. The existing forest monitoring system/remote sensing is lacking in security aspects of the data and they are costly to set up (Bharad 2020).  The current monitoring of the forest is manual which include most of the time field visit by forest ranger to collect data. The proposed system will have IoT enabled solutions in monitoring National Parks to protect against illegal activities that endanger trees in the forest. 

 

• Explore the importance of the problem

The problem associated with illegal logging must be addressed. We have realized the necessity of afforestation and protection of existing forests as the emission of CO₂ increases in every country due to globalization and Global warming harms Earth’s climate change. The National Parks have protected areas where a variety of animals, plants, ecosystems are protected and managed through certain regulations to achieve the long-term conservation of biodiversity and nature. Therefore, in many countries, the Government has the Department of Forest and Agriculture for the protection and conservation of the forest. However, manually monitoring forest or detecting illegal activities is a daunting task where forest rangers rely on a field visit. Effective forest monitoring or illegal logging prevention can be achieved using IoT solutions and remote sensing.

 

• Describe relevant scholarship

In “IOT BASED ILLEGAL TREE CUTTING PREVENTION AND MONITORING WITH WEB APPLICATION” Raghavendra, L. R., Vivek, B. T., Suhas, G. K. R., Vijay, K. M., & Vineeth, M. S (2019) proposes the system using Raspberry Pi, Relay, Flex sensors, fire sensor GSM, power supply and python to prevent smuggling of trees in the forest and regulate tree trafficking. When the fire is detected by the fire sensor, it notifies forest officials by sending text messages thought the mobile phones. Similarly, if the vibration is detected by the PIR sensor, it also notifies the forest officials by sending a message with geolocation and update the IoT cloud server webpage.

 

Bharad, Y., & Jorvekar, P. P. (2020) present the literature review of ten journal articles on the Forest Monitoring System using the Remote Sensing technique. Using Forest Monitoring System, we can get real-time information about the forest fire and could be tackled before it spread to other parts of the forest. In this survey, it was confirmed that the communication method used for almost all the methods in papers is wireless communication. Furthermore, it was made clear that all the systems described in the article use components namely data collection, data processing, data display, or storage.

 

Khandar, P. R., & Deivanai, K. (2016). Preventive System for Forests discusses that the system consisting of three components; Tree unit, Area unit, and main server unit. All the trees will be equipped with the flex sensor, microcontroller, and Zigbee module electronic unit and data from a tree can be collected by sub server unit to be sent to the main server with the help of GSM modem. Illegal activities can be detected by a flex sensor and send wirelessly to the server unit where it is set as an alarm or display on the monitors.

 

• State Research Question and Their Correspondence to Research Design

The problem statement for this research study is the illegal logging in the National Parks which is a major issue challenging the National Parks/Forest conservation. The study of various IoT based forest monitoring solutions has revealed that almost all the paper works towards a similar goal – to protect the forest by detecting illegal logging, early detection of forest fires, soil monitoring, and vegetation growth monitoring, etc. Some IoT solutions differ regarding the selection of required IoT devices, wireless network type, different sensors, a display device, and implementation procedures. The better solution can be extracted from the research study; higher performance solution, low cost but effective device, easy to implement and communications options to be merged to produce high standard forest monitoring system/solution.

There are four research questions: (1) How beneficial is the implementation of IoT solutions in national parks? (2) How efficient are the current IoT solutions in forest monitoring?  (3) How available are the IoT solutions in the market? (4) What are the key IoT solutions relevant to the research? As we need to find the answers to those research questions, data collection of selecting relevant, credible research papers, and analyzing paper based on previous, current, and future scope must be done. Such research design will allow us to know the advantages and disadvantages, working of the sensors, use of cameras with drones, data transmission from nodes/microcontroller to the server, etc.

 

2. Method

The research methodology used for this research is the Literature review. It involved searching relevant journal articles to that of the chosen topic for the research. The academic research databases I have used mostly are Google scholar but also made use of CSU Primo Search accessing into the Scopus for closely relevant papers. According to Hannah Snyder, the literature must follow proper steps and take action to make sure the review is accurate, precise, and trustworthy (Snyder 2019). I have used filters for the currency and applicable keywords to obtain pertinent articles.

 

• Research Design

The research methodology used for this research is the Literature review. There are four phases for conducting a literature review (1) design review, (2) conduct review, (3) analysis, and (4) write a review (Snyder 2019). In this research, we began by choosing the topic and then reading and collecting journal articles using search strategy such as the use of filters, keywords, academic research databases, and comparing articles from different credible sources. Then we worked on planning which includes research questions, search strategy, data collection method, literature review, etc. Thirdly, we have worked on annotated bibliography and journal synopsis. Finally, the research will come to an end by submitting the final report.

 

• Data Collection and Analysis

Data collection as described in the planning phase mainly used google scholar and CSU Primo Search. The data collection involves going through relevant papers from academic research databases and applying inclusion and exclusion criteria. I have selected twelve articles to be written annotated bibliography and another ten were excluded after analysis. The analysis of credibility is performed using the CRAAP test; currency, relevance, authority, accuracy, and purpose.

 

3. Results

There are twelve articles chosen for the annotated bibliography after thorough investigation with the application of analysis. Some articles highlight the forest monitoring system’s cost efficiency, high performance, increased productivity, and the right choice of IoT devices and communications options. Such a study comprising of the aforementioned criteria has been selected for credibility check.

 

The table below shows the result of the CRAAP test for twelve articles:

Defining Criteria:

Currency: Low < =2016, Medium = 2017 – 2018, High => 2019

Relevance: Low = not relevant, Medium = partial relevant, High = relevant

Authority: Low = master’s student, medium = Professor/PHD student, High = highly     experienced professor

Accuracy: Low <= 8 citations, Medium = 9-29 citations, High > 29 citations

Purpose: Low = entertainment/author’s intention not clear, Medium = information/author’s intention somewhat clear, High = educational/author’s intention very clear

 

Sl.No	Articles	Currency	Relevance	Authority	Accuracy	Purpose
1	Cost Minimization of GPS-GSM Based Vehicle Tracking System	Medium	High	Medium	Low	High
2	GPS and GSM Based Tracking System for Objects Moving over Wide Geographical Areas	Medium	High	Medium	Low	High
3	Forest Monitoring Using Remote Sensing	High	High	Low	High	High
4	An overview on wireless sensor networks and finding optimal location of nodes	High	Medium	High	High	High
5	Preventive System for Forests	Low	High	Low	Low	High
6	Forestry monitoring system using LoRa and Drone	Medium	High	Medium	Low	High
7	Preventing forest fires using a wireless sensor network	High	Medium	Low	Low	High
8	Cattle Robbery Avoiding System and Tracking of Stolen Cattle using IoT	High	Medium	Low	Low	High
9	IOT BASED ILLEGAL TREE CUTTING PREVENTION AND MONITORING WITH WEB APPLICATION	High	High	Medium	Low	High
10	Anti-Smuggling System for Trees in Forest Using Vibration Sensor and NRF	High	High	Medium	Medium	High
11	IoT enabled forest fire detection and an online monitoring system	Medium	Medium	Medium	Medium	Medium
12	AN AUTOMATIC SYSTEM FOR CONTROLLING DEFORESTATION USING IOT AND GSM	High	High	High	Medium	High

 

• Statistical Figures and Data Analysis

There are 12 articles chosen for this research project which are relevant to the selected topic – feasibility study of IoT solutions to monitor the illegal logging in National Parks. However, in the process of selecting relevant articles, irrelevant ones were discarded from being used for this research. The following articles were excluded for the research purpose as they are irrelevant to the topic, not current and some of the paper didn’t use IoT as a method or solution to the problem.

• Indonesia’s Forest Resource Monitoring
• Monitoring Victoria’s public forests: implementation of the Victorian Forest Monitoring Program
• Combining satellite data and community-based observations for forest monitoring
• Forest monitoring system implementation using visual basic and android application
• Forest fire protection by advanced video detection system-Croatian experiences
• Forest monitoring using Landsat time-series data: A review
• A new forest light interaction model in support of forest monitoring
• IoT forest environment factors collection platform based on ZigBee
• IoT enabled forest fire detection and online monitoring system
• Design and Implementation of an Interactive web-based near-real-time forest monitoring system

  

4. Discussion

There are four research questions to this research project and each research question will be answered in this section.

(1) How beneficial is the implementation of IoT solutions in national parks?

National parks are valuable natural resources for every country around the world and protection of national parks helps protect forest cover against deforestation due to forest fire or illegal activities of smuggling trees. Some trees such as sandalwood and teak are facing the danger of extinction due to excessive illegal human activities. According to Khandar & Deivanai (2016), the tree smuggling issue is a global problem existing not only in India but also in China, Australia, and African countries too. For many years we are aware of the news of tree smuggling and in the recent past years, sandalwood of India became endangered despite Government’s intervention to protect it from illegal activities. With the implementation of IoT solutions in National Parks, many of the illegal activities that harm the safeguard of the forest will be able to control and prevent deforestation resulting from a forest fire which is one of the major destructions to forest growth. In summary, implementation of IoT solutions will eradicate or reduce smuggling of trees in the National Parks enabling protection for the growth of the trees which is a national treasure for all the country.

 

(2) How efficient are the current IoT solutions in forest monitoring?

There are many proposed IoT solutions and methods for monitoring forests and protecting trees. However, the use of IoT in monitoring forest is very rare around the globe. Bharad and Jorvekar (2020) after studying ten journal articles based on the Forest monitoring system using remote sensing techniques concluded that the existing systems may be efficient but there is a disadvantage as those systems don’t provide data security and set up cost is high. Forest monitoring programs adapted by the Government in most of the country especially in developing countries are done manually- field visits to collect data on forest such as the severity of the impact of the changes, vegetation cover, and study of the soil. The proposed system using IoT devices and wireless communications is not feasible for the entire forest or National parks due to implementation cost. In conclusion, though there are IoT solutions for monitoring forest by detection of tree cutting, detection of fire, illegal human activity detection using vibration sensor, the efficiency in monitoring can be improved keeping in mind the performance, accurate data collection, and minimization of implementation cost. With the use of a vibration sensor, the vibration is detected when trees are being cut which is then alerted through nRF transmitter to the monitoring unit (Prem, Seetha, Surya & Vikasini, 2019).

 

(3) How available are the IoT solutions in the market?

There is an uncountable number of IoT devices installation nowadays. We can easily buy IoT devices online depending on the functions and the intentions behind it’s building. There are plenty of IoT devices such as sensors, actuators, microcontrollers, IoT hardware, and communications devices, programmable device and appliances, etc. However, combining those devices to form a complete solution for a particular purpose is not easily available for sale in the market. For example, building IoT based Forest monitoring solution requires a combination of available IoT devices molding into a functional set of connections built towards achieving a goal of monitoring and protecting the forest. Meyer, Ruppen, and Magerkurth (2013) mentioned that IoT has grown into the huge subject of research with the development of IoT devices abundantly. But there is no enough attention paid to the integration of the IoT paradigm. Therefore, with the increased development of IoT devices, there needs to be equal integration of the devices to solve identified problems.

 

(4) What are the key IoT solutions relevant to the research?

The research is based on the IoT solution for monitoring forest and National Parks to protect from deforestation and illegal activities. There is a variety of IoT solutions implementation using different IoT devices, network connectivity and other components of the IoT enabled forest monitoring system. The research includes vibration detection, fire detection, and tracking the location of the illegally transported logs. The system uses GPS for determining the location of the moving objects and GSM technologies (Fatima, Ziad & Abdulrahman, 2018). The sensors collect the information such as vibration, rise in temperature due to fire, and use of GPS for the location. Data can be stored with the help of sensors; temperature sensors, humidity sensors, and light sensors to be sent to the LoRa gateway using LoRaWAN (Sunnyeo, Shinhye, Hyunjin, Ryunhwan, John & Smith, 2018). The system has three components – data collection, data processing, and data display. The data collected is then transferred through the ZigBee network which is as it is low power and cost or other types of the wireless network. The final destination of the information collected is then displayed on the device such as mobile phones or web applications. In conclusion, three components of the monitoring system are present, but we can choose IoT devices depending on the performance, capability, and cost of the IoT device.

 

Conclusion

The IoT solution for forest monitoring to prevent illegal logging has a lot of advantages over manual monitoring of the forest. The real-time IoT based solution will instantly detect the illegal activities and then the notification is sent to the display unit along with the location data. Upon receiving the information on illegal activities, a forest ranger can immediately take action to stop such smuggling, and smugglers will be dealt with according to the rules and regulations. To increase the productivity of the system, the right choice of IoT devices and efficient long-range wireless networks need to be integrated.

 

 

Reference

 

Bharad, Y., & Jorvekar, P. P. (2020). Forest Monitoring Using Remote Sensing. CLIO An Annual Interdisciplinary Journal of History, 6(4), 213-220.

 

Snyder, H. (2019). Literature review as a research methodology: An overview and guidelines. Journal of Business Research, 104, 333-339.

 

Meyer, S., Ruppen, A., & Magerkurth, C. (2013, June). Internet of things-aware process modeling: integrating iot devices as business process resources. In International conference on advanced information systems engineering (pp. 84-98). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.

 

Raghavendra, L. R., Vivek, B. T., Suhas Gowda, K. R., Vijay Kumar, M., & Vineeth, M. S. IOT BASED ILLEGAL TREE CUTTING PREVENTION AND MONITORING WITH WEB APPLICATION.

 

Ameen, F., Mohammed, Z., & Siddiq, A. (2018). GPS and GSM Based Tracking System for Objects Moving over Wide Geographical Areas. Al-Kitab Journal for Pure Sciences, 2(1).

 

Khalaf, O. I., & Sabbar, B. M. (2019). An overview on wireless sensor networks and finding optimal location of nodes. Periodicals of Engineering and Natural Sciences, 7(3), 1096-1101.

Ameen, F. N., Mohammed, Z. S., & Siddiq, A. I. (2018, October). Cost Minimization of GPS-GSM Based Vehicle Tracking System. In 2018 International Conference on Advanced Science and Engineering (ICOASE) (pp. 256-261). IEEE.

 

Khandar, P. R., & Deivanai, K. (2016). Preventive System for Forests. International Journal of Computer Science Trends and Technology (IJCST), 4(1).

 

Park, S., Yun, S., Kim, H., Kwon, R., & Ganser, J. (2018, June). Forestry monitoring system using LoRa and Drone. In Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Web Intelligence, Mining and Semantics (pp. 1-8).

 

Pan, L. (2020). Preventing forest fires using a wireless sensor network. Journal of Forest Science, 66, 2020 (3): 97–104. doi:10.17221/151/2019-JFS

 

Priyanka, R., Chethan, C. K., Harisha, K. M., Madhurya, B. R., & Bhargav, A. (2019). Cattle Robbery Avoiding System and Tracking of Stolen Cattle using IoT. International Journal of Research in Engineering, Science and Management

 

Seetha, A., Prem, A. R., Surya, M., Vikasini, K. R. (2019, July). Anti-Smuggling System for Trees in Forest Using Vibration Sensor and NRF. In Electronics and Communication Engineering, Francis Xavier Engineering College.

 

Seetha, A., Prem, A. R., Surya, M., Vikasini, K. R. (2019, July). Anti-Smuggling System for Trees in Forest Using Vibration Sensor and NRF. In Electronics and Communication Engineering, Francis Xavier Engineering College.