Monitoring Systems for a Volcanic Area Subjected to Rockfall: Case Study in the Island of Ischia

Rockfall events represent a significant threat to human settlements and can cause devastating consequences for infrastructure and public safety. In recent years, the use of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) has become a widely considered choice for geotechnical monitoring because of their flexibility and high compatibility with Internet of Things (IoT)-based structures. In this work, a low-power rockfall-prevention system based on Long Range (LoRa) technology and implemented in the island of Ischia, Italy, is presented. The system is composed of multiple smart nodes which retrieve data about the rockfall hazard, and communicate with a central gateway in a star topology. Thanks to the internal structure of the data collection point, this implementation is classified as a Narrow Band Internet of Things (NB-IoT) application. The single node has an average power consumption in the order of hundreds of microwatts, which allows complete energy independence.