Smart forest monitoring: A novel Internet of Things framework with shortest path routing for sustainable environmental management

Forests play a pivotal role in protecting the environment, preserving vital natural resources, and ultimately sustaining human life. However, the escalating occurrences of forest fires, whether of human origin or due to climate change, poses a significant threat to this ecosystem. In recent decades, the emergence of the IoT has been characterised by the utilisation of smart sensors for real-time data collection. IoT facilitates proactive decision-making for forest monitoring, control, and protection through advanced data analysis techniques, including AI algorithms. This research study presents a comprehensive approach to deploying a dynamic and adaptable network topology in forest environments, aimed at optimising data transmission and enhancing system reliability. Three distinct topologies are proposed in this research study: direct transmission from nodes to gateways, cluster formation with multi-step data transmission, and clustering with data relayed by cluster heads. A key innovation is the use of high-powered telecommunication modules in cluster heads, enabling long-range data transmission while considering energy efficiency through solar power. To enhance system reliability, this study incorporates a reserve routing mechanism to mitigate the impact of node or cluster head failures. Additionally, the placement of gateway nodes is optimised using meta-heuristic algorithms, including particle swarm optimisation (PSO), harmony search algorithm (HSA), and ant colony optimisation for continuous domains (ACOR), with ACOR emerging as the most effective. The primary objective of this article is to reduce power consumption, alleviate network traffic, and decrease nodes' interdependence, while also considering reliability coefficients and error tolerance as additional considerations. As shown in the results, the proposed methods effectively reduce network traffic, optimise routing, and ensure robust performance across various environmental conditions, highlighting the importance of these tailored topologies in enhancing energy efficiency, data accuracy, and network reliability in forest monitoring applications.