An Integrated LoRa-Based IoT Platform Serving Smart Farming and Agro-Logistics

The value chain of agri-food is radically changed due the fact that consumers, as well as various players in the agro-logistics chain, seek for increased and trustful food safety. Given the specific characteristics of the agri-food supply chain, having numerous origin points, several aggregations hubs at different levels and then again numerous points of sales, the need of a holistic approach in collecting, forwarding and interpreting data in an interoperable way is a dire need. In this chapter, the authors present the architecture of the traceability platform KalaΘosTM and its IoT management module called, GP CoreIoTTM. The KalaΘos infrastructure includes a network of sensors devices at farms, equipment, trucks, aggregation, processing, and logistics facilities, connected to a network of LoRa gateways. Its open architecture focuses on semantic and syntactic interoperability approaches for joint exploitation of data collected and managed by other systems with similar aims and scope.

Key challenges for tropospheric chemistry in the Southern Hemisphere

This commentary paper from the recently formed International Global Atmospheric Chemistry (IGAC) Southern Hemisphere Working Group outlines key issues in atmospheric composition research that particularly impact the Southern Hemisphere. In this article, we present a broad overview of many of the challenges for understanding atmospheric chemistry in the Southern Hemisphere, before focusing in on the most significant factors that differentiate it from the Northern Hemisphere. We present sections on the importance of biogenic emissions and fires in the Southern Hemisphere, showing that these emissions often dominate over anthropogenic emissions in many regions. We then describe how these and other factors influence air quality in different parts of the Southern Hemisphere. Finally, we describe the key role of the Southern Ocean in influencing atmospheric chemistry and conclude with a description of the aims and scope of the newly formed IGAC Southern Hemisphere Working Group.