Use Case

2022 USE CASE How the La Sapienza Botanical Garden in Rome implemented a smart garden system using IoT In recent years, the development of Smart IoT sensors has generated a great deal of enthusiasm in the agriculture sector. Smart devices are now being deployed in the agriculture space for data collection to allow for more efficient planning of many important growing and production activities using limited resources, with little to no human intervention. Within this growing list of Smart Agriculture Use Cases, continuous monitoring systems for both residential and commercial gardens are being deployed more rapidly. Smart gardens using IoT are systems that are leveraging the Internet of Things (IoT) to help transform gardening as a smart, dynamic and often automated process. The key features of such a system are the deployment of Smart IoT devices for data collection, cloud-based analysis, and data-based decision making. The smart garden project for the Orto Botanico dell'Università di Roma "La Sapienza", also known as the Orto Botanico di Roma, was born from the collaboration between Unidata, La Sapienza University of Rome and DAMA Studio Association. DIGITALIZATION WITH LORAWAN ® To create a digitized environment within the Botanical Smart Garden of Rome, various sensors were deployed to create the full Smart monitoring system: • Weather station for measuring temperature, wind speed and direction, pressure and solar radiation, mm rain and fine dust • Temperature Sensor & Soil Moisture Sensor • Several dendrometers for reading the growth of the bark of the trees Ceiba Speciosa and Ficus Seria • Devices for monitoring of filing of two water storage tanks • Smart sensors for consumption counting at various strategic points • Devices for reading of consumption time and an indication of system pressure. Unidata chose the TEKTELIC Agriculture sensor to assist with monitoring the Botanical Smart Garden project as it was the ideal solution to streamline and simplify the collection of key soil and environmental metrics for crops. The device provides a straightforward and easy to deploy solution for soil moisture SITUATION The garden was established in 1883 and today it contains more than 3,000 species, with a Japanese garden, bamboo groves, and a Giardino dei Semplici (over 300 species of medicinal plants). Having over 300 species of plants meant that there had to be different soil condition requirements and watering schedules for different areas of the garden, so a solution was needed to accurately monitor the conditions of the garden in real-time to make smart decisions to optimize plant growth. ISSUE The challenge was to find the most reliable, cost effective and simple to operate solution: • to modernize the Botanical Garden with continuous monitoring capabilities • to optimize soil and environment conditions • to ensure the garden would thrive and be an ideal growing environment for all of the 300 species within it Smart Agriculture Europe Partnership LoRaWAN Certified TM Device SOLUTION The decision was made to move forward with the LoRaWAN® technology as the best performing, low cost and reliable solution that successfully met the needs of the remote real-time data monitoring requirements for the botanical smart garden. Unidata is leveraging a suite of sensors deployed throughout the Botanical Garden, one of which being the TEKTELIC Agriculture Sensor - to effectively measure soil PH-level, moisture level and moisture content, light intensity, environmental monitoring and CO2 level. Several devices were also placed outside of the Botanical Garden Greenhouse for: • Detection of soil temperature parameters • Soil surface tension in depth and surface monitoring • Illumination, temperature, and humidity monitoring

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