The Internet of Things for Natural Risk Management (Inte.Ri.M.)

*Riccardo Beltramo, Paolo Cantore, Enrica Vesce, Sergio Margarita and Paola De Bernardi*

## **Abstract**

This chapter deals with the development of a management system, which integrates the use of IoT in natural risk detection, revention, and management with economic evaluation of each stage. In the introductory part, recent data are presented that document the importance that natural disasters have for the environment and for the Italian economy. Section 2 presents the Inte.Ri.M. project—the Internet of Things for Natural Risk Management—its purpose, activity plan, and bodies involved. Technical aspects are treated in Section 3 with the choice of hardware and software components and the solutions for collecting and transmitting data. Section 4 is about the economic aspects considering the stages of prevention, intervention, and restoration and the relation between the intensity of human activity and environment to define a range of situations. These scenarios call for different economic methodologies useful to estimate economic implications of each stage in the short, medium, and long term. Section 5 describes the structure of the Inte.Ri.M. management system and the foreseen functionalities. In the conclusion, the critical points are discussed, and the steps for the transposition of the work carried out on the territory are outlined, according to the provisions of the work program.

**Keywords:** risk management, disaster, economic impact, sensor, forecast, IoT

### **1. Introduction**

The structure of the chapter is described in **Figure 1**.

Evaluation and management of natural risks are relevant topics that have been brought to the fore by the recent earthquakes in Italy. The consequences of these phenomena make clear that it is mandatory to evaluate the risk and correctly manage information and emergency interventions. Securing the territory is on the top of the agenda of our government, and Piedmont region has recently adopted a plan to finance, with over 60 million euros, land protection and hydrogeological risk prevention measures [1].

Piedmont, a region in the north-west of Italy, located at the western edge of the Po Valley, is occupied for about 49% of its territory by the mountain ranges of the Alps and the Apennines, which delimit it on three sides like an arch. The region is statistically affected by alluvial events with average occurrences of an event every 18 months or so. In the alpine sector, special nivo-meteorological conditions can cause avalanches.

**Figure 1.** *The structure of the chapter.*

The regional territory is also subject to earthquakes: the tectonic context and the active geodynamic regimes lead the region to be the site of seismic activity, generally modest in terms of energy, but notable as a frequency. Floods, fires, landslides, and avalanches can be less catastrophic compared to earthquakes, but they create damages as well, due to their frequency. Natural causes and an improper use of the territory are at the base of this kind of events. Management deficiencies cause **economic** losses in these contexts [2].

The effects of these phenomena influence human activities in the short and medium-long term; they cause real natural disasters whose damages are measured in victims and economic losses, in the short term, to the ecosystem and to human, civil, and productive settlements, in the medium-long term. The restoration of the initial conditions can take decades.

Although the attention devoted to forecasting and managing the effects of these phenomena has increased over time, and investments in parallel, the achievements recorded in the field of prevention have been few, and they show that the spaces for improvements exist and are wide. Monitoring networks are used where phenomena have occurred in the past or where there are significant threats of danger. As a result, large areas of territory are not monitored, while the availability of significant and updated data is the basis for any preventive action. The consequence of this attitude is that the interventions take place after natural disasters occur, while a preventive view, made up of infrastructural interventions, would allow to counter huge damages to the population and to the structures and to better organise the management of emergencies.

#### **2. Inte.Ri.M. project**

Based on this, the Inte.Ri.M. project—the Internet of Things for Natural Risk Management—has been launched in 2017, with an interdisciplinary approach, by a research group of economists, mathematicians, computer engineers, and experts in management systems of the University of Turin, linked to the Research Centre on

**97**

*The Internet of Things for Natural Risk Management (Inte.Ri.M.)*

Natural Risks in Mountain and Hilly Environments of the same university and with

which, in the specific case, can be associated to the dynamic balance of the elements of nature. Therefore, nothing is immutable, everything is temporary, and sometimes, the provisional nature is expressed in a brutal manner, with tragic

The choice of the acronym Inte.Ri.M. expresses the sense of provisional nature,

The general objective of the project is the evaluation and management of natural disaster risks in a systemic and integrated way, in which technical and economic variables are measured to prevent and assess, with a holistic approach, the natural

The ultimate goal of the project is the realisation of a computerised integrated system for the evaluation of costs and benefits in some natural risk situations. The methodology that has been put in place is able to compare the costs of prevention, including the costs of the detection system, analysis and reporting, and an estimate cost to contain damage, with the benefits deriving precisely from the damage

The specific objectives of the project, which correspond to the same number of

1.Identification of macro natural disaster risks in mountain ecosystem (WP1).

3.Focus on specific natural disaster risks: avalanches and landslides in Piedmont

4.Implementing technical tools and economic assessment approaches to prevent

5.Application and integration of prevention and management system outputs on real-time dashboard with IoT tools to support disaster risk reduction decision-

6.Testing and applicability of the integrated key risk indicators selected from the

7.Performance dissemination through communication and raise awareness of the institutions, businesses, and population interested in risk prevention

Currently, WP1 has been concluded and has led to the selection of sites to be monitored. WP2 and WP5 are in progress. Therefore, in the parts related to the technical aspects (Part 2) and to the economic aspects (Part 3), the analysis carried

The identification of macro natural disaster risks in mountain ecosystem (WP1) has recorded an increment of natural disasters, in frequency and intensity. Evidence indicates that exposure of persons and assets to risk in all countries has increased and vulnerability has decreased, thus generating new risks and a steady rise in disaster-related losses, with a significant economic, social, health, cultural, and environmental impact in the short, medium, and long term. In this scenario,

2.Consideration to disasters, whose impact is localised and circumscribed

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.81707*

the support of Piedmont region.

consequences for humans.

risks in ecosystem services.

avoided (in the case study).

(WP2).

(WP7).

region (WP3).

work packages (WP), are as follows:

making processes (WP5).

dashboard in a pilot case (WP6).

and manage natural disaster risks (WP4).

Time sheet and deliverables are reported in **Figure 2**.

out to define the specifications of the integrated system is presented.

*The Internet of Things for Natural Risk Management (Inte.Ri.M.) DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.81707*

*Perspectives on Risk, Assessment and Management Paradigms*

**economic** losses in these contexts [2].

initial conditions can take decades.

The regional territory is also subject to earthquakes: the tectonic context and the active geodynamic regimes lead the region to be the site of seismic activity, generally modest in terms of energy, but notable as a frequency. Floods, fires, landslides, and avalanches can be less catastrophic compared to earthquakes, but they create damages as well, due to their frequency. Natural causes and an improper use of the territory are at the base of this kind of events. Management deficiencies cause

The effects of these phenomena influence human activities in the short and medium-long term; they cause real natural disasters whose damages are measured in victims and economic losses, in the short term, to the ecosystem and to human, civil, and productive settlements, in the medium-long term. The restoration of the

Although the attention devoted to forecasting and managing the effects of these phenomena has increased over time, and investments in parallel, the achievements recorded in the field of prevention have been few, and they show that the spaces for improvements exist and are wide. Monitoring networks are used where phenomena have occurred in the past or where there are significant threats of danger. As a result, large areas of territory are not monitored, while the availability of significant and updated data is the basis for any preventive action. The consequence of this attitude is that the interventions take place after natural disasters occur, while a preventive view, made up of infrastructural interventions, would allow to counter huge damages to the population and to the structures and to better organise the management of

Based on this, the Inte.Ri.M. project—the Internet of Things for Natural Risk Management—has been launched in 2017, with an interdisciplinary approach, by a research group of economists, mathematicians, computer engineers, and experts in management systems of the University of Turin, linked to the Research Centre on

**96**

emergencies.

**Figure 1.**

*The structure of the chapter.*

**2. Inte.Ri.M. project**

Natural Risks in Mountain and Hilly Environments of the same university and with the support of Piedmont region.

The choice of the acronym Inte.Ri.M. expresses the sense of provisional nature, which, in the specific case, can be associated to the dynamic balance of the elements of nature. Therefore, nothing is immutable, everything is temporary, and sometimes, the provisional nature is expressed in a brutal manner, with tragic consequences for humans.

The general objective of the project is the evaluation and management of natural disaster risks in a systemic and integrated way, in which technical and economic variables are measured to prevent and assess, with a holistic approach, the natural risks in ecosystem services.

The ultimate goal of the project is the realisation of a computerised integrated system for the evaluation of costs and benefits in some natural risk situations. The methodology that has been put in place is able to compare the costs of prevention, including the costs of the detection system, analysis and reporting, and an estimate cost to contain damage, with the benefits deriving precisely from the damage avoided (in the case study).

The specific objectives of the project, which correspond to the same number of work packages (WP), are as follows:


Time sheet and deliverables are reported in **Figure 2**.

Currently, WP1 has been concluded and has led to the selection of sites to be monitored. WP2 and WP5 are in progress. Therefore, in the parts related to the technical aspects (Part 2) and to the economic aspects (Part 3), the analysis carried out to define the specifications of the integrated system is presented.

The identification of macro natural disaster risks in mountain ecosystem (WP1) has recorded an increment of natural disasters, in frequency and intensity. Evidence indicates that exposure of persons and assets to risk in all countries has increased and vulnerability has decreased, thus generating new risks and a steady rise in disaster-related losses, with a significant economic, social, health, cultural, and environmental impact in the short, medium, and long term. In this scenario,

**Figure 2.** *Timesheet and deliverables.*

mountain ecosystems, which furnish a large group of goods and services to humanity, for people that live in mountains or outside [3], like source of ecological and food security, are deeply affected by natural disaster [4].

It is widely accepted that mountain ecosystems must be protected but is neglected by the fact that they act also as buffer against natural hazardous. The measurement of full costs of losses and degradation of these ecosystem services are difficult to assess, but there is a sense of urgency to implement an economic tracking system to monitor all disaster risk reduction costs for mitigation, preparedness, and emergency response.

A correct evaluation of ecosystem services gives helpful information to estimate costs and benefits of decisions, to define future scenarios, and to recognise and avoid unexpected consequences [5].

The value of ecosystem services can be linked to the direct use (e.g., wood) or indirect use (value of specific ecological functions), or to the particular item relevance for other goods or values, or finally, the value may simply be intrinsic (e.g., existence value or cultural value). The capacity to prevent and respond to a disaster is especially important in mountains area, where remoteness and difficulty of access are often features of communities that, during disasters, are cut off from the outside world more often and for a longer time than lowland areas. For this reason, it emerges urgently the need to manage disaster risk with an effective integration among technical tools and economic approaches to measure the activities of prevention (ex ante risk management), rehabilitation, and recovery (ex post risk management) [6].

Environmental data are at the base of natural disaster prevention. The state of the art for landslide monitoring uses inclinometers, extensometers, and piezometer sensors. For avalanche monitoring, the most common solutions are ultrasound sensors, Doppler radars, and optic sensors. Floods and earthquakes require not just sensors; indeed, the most important prevision tools are software using mathematical algorithms based on time series. We will focus on avalanches and landslides in Piedmont region. The regional agencies of environmental protection of Piedmont (Arpa Piemonte) provide open data about river and snow levels, landslide areas, and other meteorological information.

Inte.Ri.M uses the data already available, integrating them with those measured by the WSN Scatol8®. Scatol8® is a WSN developed in the University of Turin.

**99**

**3. Technical aspects**

**events notification**

*The Internet of Things for Natural Risk Management (Inte.Ri.M.)*

Many sensors are included in the platform, that is, wind direction and speed, snow level, liquid flow, rain level, air pressure, solar and ultraviolet radiation, noise, vibration, soil moisture, and many others. Scatol8® platform is based on open source hardware and software not only for cost saving but also in the view of knowledge sharing. Several experiences have been made in environmental monitoring. We built WSN for data acquisition in mountain huts, parks, mine, and other

Our interdisciplinary proposal aims to mix our technical and economic skills to assess how much preventing disasters with WSN can cost and make to save money at the same time. The use of open data that are already available is useful in the starting stage of the study and will reduce costs. At the same time, open source WSNs are suitable for detecting data, saving cost in comparison with proprietary solutions. We consider economic and environmental indicators at the same time. Starting from the literature review, we choose the environmental variable relevant for the project scopes. We select the most suitable evaluation methods for the economic analysis of the ecosystem services (direct and indirect) that we integrate with the economic valuation of the human activities managed in the observed areas. The intensity of a measured variable or the result of statistical elaborations can assume different sense in the phase of sensing, data analysis, and communication with the stakeholders. Smartphone, tablet, and other devices are useful for the warning and the management steps of emergencies. They can also collect data from people to the emergency area. Assessing the economic impacts of disasters is a very recent field of study. The methodologies adopted to enable a transparent and coherent economic assessment of disaster risk management are based, first of all, on the post-event losses. The impact assessments estimate the economic and social impacts of past disasters. Storing such information in a database is a precondition for estimating future disaster impact. Moreover, we use the cost-benefit analysis (CBA) integrated with complementary tools as, for example, cost-effectiveness and multicriteria analysis (MCA) and robust decision-making approaches (RDMA). This holistic methodology is effective in relation to reliable input data availability (e.g., past disaster losses, indirect losses, and macroeconomic impacts), among which those from private business sector and public finance are important for achieving good-quality economic impact analysis. Approaches need to address the different layers of risk (from intensive to extensive risk), underlying risk drivers, as well as be tailored to mountain local contexts. Addressing these underlying risk drivers will reduce disaster risk, lessen the impacts of climate change, and consequently, maintain the sustainability of development (UNISDR, 2015). In parallel, attention will be paid to the need of communication among various actors involved in natural disaster management, through new technologies like the IoT and cloud computing.

**3.1 How technologies can contribute to disaster prevention and critical** 

Disasters are caused by nature and/or by human activities, and they can impact on security, agriculture, industry, health, and natural environment. Technologies can have a key role in disaster prevention and management. While some tools, as for example, some environmental sensors, have been on the market since the first half of the twentieth century; in the last 10 years, the opportunity to connect devices through the Internet has created many new opportunities. People can use recent technologies for real-time analytics, remote or in-site monitoring, data analysis,

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.81707*

kinds of areas.

#### *The Internet of Things for Natural Risk Management (Inte.Ri.M.) DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.81707*

*Perspectives on Risk, Assessment and Management Paradigms*

mountain ecosystems, which furnish a large group of goods and services to humanity, for people that live in mountains or outside [3], like source of ecological and

A correct evaluation of ecosystem services gives helpful information to estimate

Inte.Ri.M uses the data already available, integrating them with those measured by the WSN Scatol8®. Scatol8® is a WSN developed in the University of Turin.

costs and benefits of decisions, to define future scenarios, and to recognise and

The value of ecosystem services can be linked to the direct use (e.g., wood) or indirect use (value of specific ecological functions), or to the particular item relevance for other goods or values, or finally, the value may simply be intrinsic (e.g., existence value or cultural value). The capacity to prevent and respond to a disaster is especially important in mountains area, where remoteness and difficulty of access are often features of communities that, during disasters, are cut off from the outside world more often and for a longer time than lowland areas. For this reason, it emerges urgently the need to manage disaster risk with an effective integration among technical tools and economic approaches to measure the activities of prevention (ex ante risk management), rehabilitation, and recovery (ex post risk management) [6]. Environmental data are at the base of natural disaster prevention. The state of the art for landslide monitoring uses inclinometers, extensometers, and piezometer sensors. For avalanche monitoring, the most common solutions are ultrasound sensors, Doppler radars, and optic sensors. Floods and earthquakes require not just sensors; indeed, the most important prevision tools are software using mathematical algorithms based on time series. We will focus on avalanches and landslides in Piedmont region. The regional agencies of environmental protection of Piedmont (Arpa Piemonte) provide open data about river and snow levels, landslide areas, and other meteorological information.

It is widely accepted that mountain ecosystems must be protected but is neglected by the fact that they act also as buffer against natural hazardous. The measurement of full costs of losses and degradation of these ecosystem services are difficult to assess, but there is a sense of urgency to implement an economic tracking system to monitor all disaster risk reduction costs for mitigation, preparedness,

food security, are deeply affected by natural disaster [4].

and emergency response.

**Figure 2.**

*Timesheet and deliverables.*

avoid unexpected consequences [5].

**98**

Many sensors are included in the platform, that is, wind direction and speed, snow level, liquid flow, rain level, air pressure, solar and ultraviolet radiation, noise, vibration, soil moisture, and many others. Scatol8® platform is based on open source hardware and software not only for cost saving but also in the view of knowledge sharing. Several experiences have been made in environmental monitoring. We built WSN for data acquisition in mountain huts, parks, mine, and other kinds of areas.

Our interdisciplinary proposal aims to mix our technical and economic skills to assess how much preventing disasters with WSN can cost and make to save money at the same time. The use of open data that are already available is useful in the starting stage of the study and will reduce costs. At the same time, open source WSNs are suitable for detecting data, saving cost in comparison with proprietary solutions.

We consider economic and environmental indicators at the same time. Starting from the literature review, we choose the environmental variable relevant for the project scopes. We select the most suitable evaluation methods for the economic analysis of the ecosystem services (direct and indirect) that we integrate with the economic valuation of the human activities managed in the observed areas. The intensity of a measured variable or the result of statistical elaborations can assume different sense in the phase of sensing, data analysis, and communication with the stakeholders. Smartphone, tablet, and other devices are useful for the warning and the management steps of emergencies. They can also collect data from people to the emergency area. Assessing the economic impacts of disasters is a very recent field of study. The methodologies adopted to enable a transparent and coherent economic assessment of disaster risk management are based, first of all, on the post-event losses. The impact assessments estimate the economic and social impacts of past disasters. Storing such information in a database is a precondition for estimating future disaster impact. Moreover, we use the cost-benefit analysis (CBA) integrated with complementary tools as, for example, cost-effectiveness and multicriteria analysis (MCA) and robust decision-making approaches (RDMA). This holistic methodology is effective in relation to reliable input data availability (e.g., past disaster losses, indirect losses, and macroeconomic impacts), among which those from private business sector and public finance are important for achieving good-quality economic impact analysis. Approaches need to address the different layers of risk (from intensive to extensive risk), underlying risk drivers, as well as be tailored to mountain local contexts. Addressing these underlying risk drivers will reduce disaster risk, lessen the impacts of climate change, and consequently, maintain the sustainability of development (UNISDR, 2015). In parallel, attention will be paid to the need of communication among various actors involved in natural disaster management, through new technologies like the IoT and cloud computing.
