MONITORING AND CONTROLLING NATURAL RESOURCES BY MEANS OF LOW COST COMMUNICATION PROTOCOL

Abstract

Natural resources are assets of humanity that require as much care with it’s consumption as with it’s administration. In times when excessive rains and prolonged drought affect the water supply of major center and small cities, such care become indispensable and critical. This paper investigates the implementation of a low cost system that allows the monitoring and control of the water consumption of a residence. The proposed system provides the consumer ways to keep the water consumption as low as possible, check for leakage, use the water in alternative periods, and avoid problems caused by maintenances such as air in the pipes being counted in the invoice. The relationship between concessionaires and consumers also has the potential to become narrower, with the easy interaction between the two, differentiated tariffs, consumption data exchange, and the comparison between measured and charged consumption.