A pragmatic approach to low-cost, real-time, environment monitoring and prediction

There are several areas of environmental monitoring, prediction and control where it is desirable to achieve a real-time response using low-cost equipment. For example, the ability to obtain rapid access to weather information for agricultural and numerous other purposes; or to atmospheric pollution information in environment monitoring; or to river water level information for flooding alerts; or to water usage information for drought avoidance; could make a dramatic difference to the way of life and economy of many people, especially those who live in remote, rural areas. In many circumstances a system providing this environmental information must necessarily supplement global or large-scale data with local data to provide an effective localised facility. For example, hazardous environmental phenomena, perhaps leading to destruction of life and property, are often confined to a small-sized locality. This paper reports research which suggests that if nonphysical, heuristic, algorithms are acceptable, then a pragmatic solution may be realised using low-cost PC-based systems