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Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - EnvironmetrY (Environmental Urban Monitoring System)

Teaser

Summary

Environmental monitoring is becoming more and more important and essential to gather information about the effectiveness of the environment in which collections are kept. The records produced by monitoring the environment in the different locations can provide a useful baseline of the existing conditions where collections are located. They can be used to document constant changes and identify areas with poor control.
The records collected can be then used as supporting documentation to track changes, and to adjust control parameters to better meet the long-term objectives for preservation of the environment. They also guarantee the planning for new or upgraded HVAC equipment and maintenance, or improving collection storage and use practices, along with general elements for public health in any applicable environment.
Managing a set of data providing stability and reducing risk for the different applicable environment and locations is challenging. It relies on careful monitoring to make sure the control over the different environments is working properly, to identify problems requiring attention and actions, to document conditions and their effects, and to support planning for improvements. Monitoring is a key tool in making informed decisions to ensure the safety, stability and constant control.
As a matter of fact, the air we breathe both outdoor and indoor, the water we drink, the pollutants we are exposed to, are all elements directly affecting all of us in terms of quality of life, life expectancy, possibility to incur in some specific diseases, and other aspects of our daily life, also considering our working and living environment. As way of example, poor air quality, for example, has been linked to premature death, cancer, and different respiratory conditions such as pulmonary disease, problems that can occur also when in contact with water exposed to biofilm.
The Global Burden of Disease study estimates that 24% of the worldâ€™s burden of disease can be attributed to different environmental factors (IHME, 2013). Environmental monitoring focuses as primary and central element on identifying and measuring different pollutants such as chemical, biological, microbiological in water, soil and air. In addition, environmental monitoring also targets different variable such as humidity, temperature, noise levels, that brought together can also create some correlations useful to prevent and control the environment.
As W2W, we intend to introduce in the market Environ&metrY, an integrated, homogeneous, scalable and modular air and environmental monitoring system, deployed through a scalable cloud-based platform for the IoT, COIOTE (www.coiote.io), developed and owned by our company. It is based on different data transmission systems through the development of our own specific, modular and scalable gateway, that can be easily adapted to the different available protocols such as SigFox, LoRaWAN and GPRS, on the basis of specific users requirements and network availability.
The overall objective of our Feasibility Study has been to validate the business strategy and assess the economic and financial feasibility of the project, based on a sound market analysis. In this way, we have worked to validate also technological and organizational requirements for our product development, also through a cost benefit analysis, and assessing the IPR management and strategy.
As a result, we have identified, selected, quantified and validated the three fields of application of our Environ&metrY solution:
1) Outdoor monitoring system for industry;
2) Indoor monitoring system for industry;
3) Monitoring of biofilm growth in water distribution systems.

Work performed

The following actions have been performed during the project implementation, leading to the validation and update of our innovation project:
a. Market Analysis: we have identified and addressed the potential market opportunities starting from a deep analysis of potential markets related to IoT technologies for air and environmental monitoring.
The results of this activity have been:
1) the assessment of all the possible target markets, analysing elements of demography, extension, maturity, location and growth potential on the countries already selected for first market introduction according to our company experience and network: Italy, Germany, Poland and Scandinavian markets. This specific analysis has involved in particular the fields of monitoring outdoor and indoor (industrial) environments, and the biofilm segment;
2) the assessment of main competitors and their offer, their extension, existing market barriers and potential new ones, including the pricing policy of direct competitors;
3) the identification of the strategy to differentiate the Environ&metrY product;
4) the definition of the potential market share for Environ&metrY and the plan to penetrate in a timely manner the target market.
b. Business Strategy: this activity regarded the definition and validation of the business strategy in the markets identified as target. Basing on the market analysis, we have identified and selected the three fields of application of our Environ&metrY solution:
1) Outdoor monitoring system for industry;
2) Indoor monitoring system for industry;
3) Monitoring of biofilm growth in water distribution systems.
In this regard, we have evaluated digital opportunities, threats, capabilities, gaps and synergies in the three environments, in order to define the best business strategy. Moreover, we have investigated the full exploitation of existing assets and infrastructures of our company, namely the COIOTE platform and relating features.
c. Technological and organization advancements: this activity focused on the validation of the selected technology requirements and features of our product, to implement our business innovation strategy. In addition, we have also addressed the relevant IPR issue in order to ensure a full exploitation of the results during the commercialization phase in selected EU countries, and to evaluate the technological consistency and the overall increasing value over time of the innovation proposed.
d. Financial overview: we have worked to assess the total value of our innovative product, we have defined a comprehensive business plan based on the full development and commercialization in relevant market fields and countries. We have therefore assessed the operation in a multiannual framework (3 years), identifying revenues projections and workforce enlargement, thus determining the pricing policies. Finally, we have identified the company breakeven point and estimated the financing needs.
The resulting business plan elaborated, along with market data and analysis, has provided the fundamental elements to draft the final decision of pursuing our innovation development. â€ƒ

Final results

\"On the basis of the actions and analysis undertaken, we have worked to develop a prototype of the outdoor Environ&metrY cloud-based solution, consisting of an integrated, homogeneous, scalable and modular air and environmental parameters monitoring system, registering and measuring the following elements: temperature, humidity, wind speed, atmospheric pressure, particle matter (PM1, PM2.5, PM10), COx, NOx, SO2, NH3, HCI, HCN, CI2.
Environ&metrY will be based on three components:
a. A terminal for data collection, based on the COIOTE CORE, a hardware and firmware part of COIOTE PLATFORM, and equipped with the monitoring sensors.
b. Network for data transmission (gateway).
c. COIOTE PLATFORM: data are transformed into information, through the creation of a database of the different gathered real time environmental variables, followed by analysis, cataloguing, and storage.
However, based on the research undertaken to verify and categorize the current market and technical trends, it has been necessary to further develop the initial project idea, so to introduce two new monitoring systems and a data transmission device.
1. Indoor Monitoring: increasing level of awareness among the public about the hazards of pollution and healthcare is also fuelling the growth of global indoor air quality monitor market. Technological advancement in the air quality monitor systems as well as its demand from the developing countries like India and China are offering new opportunities for key market player. Many factors, such as implementation of stringent environment regulations and increasing industrialization, are likely to drive the indoor air quality market. The solution will be offered as a stand-alone device, as well as a part of more comprehensive services. It will be directly offered to facilities manager, energy managers, factory and plant managers.
2. Biofilm: management of biofilm growth in water distribution systems requires an integrated approach, starting from the treatment of water prior to entering the networks to the potential implementation of \"\"biofilm-limiting\"\" operational conditions and, finally, ending with the careful selection of available technologies for biofilm monitoring and control. Because of the dynamic nature of many water treatment systems and the worldwide need for improved reliability and quality, a higher degree of precision is required in the monitoring of water treatment programs than those obtained through manual monitoring. To achieve the degree of precision needed, continuous on-line monitoring with automatic instrumentation like ours is required.
To this extent, Environ&metrY can be framed as the only comprehensive and scalable monitoring system enabling different target users to monitor different environments, such as outdoor, indoor and biofilm, using the centralized cloud based COIOTE platform. It allows to keep under constant control a set of different parameters so to take decision in real time, lowering the risks associated with increasing pollution both in outdoor and indoor settings, along with the proliferation of bacteria causing the creation of the biofilm in water and related water systems.
A further step undertaken relates to the development of a gateway, intended as a transmission system, to be used in wide areas (long range) and for the indoor monitoring system, based on different set of transmission technologies. The terminal serves the function of connecting the different sensors to the cloud in a bidirectional mode. The necessity for W2W to develop its own gateway is based on the need to identify the most suitable transmission standards (protocols) that are valid for different applications on the cloud and sensors side.
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