Environmental monitoring used to rely on a few expensive reference stations. IoT allows a dense network of lower-cost sensors that trade individual accuracy for coverage: dozens of air-quality nodes across a city reveal hot spots that one station would miss. The same pattern applies to river levels, noise near construction sites, and soil conditions in precision agriculture.
The sensors are usually battery or solar powered and report over LoRaWAN, NB-IoT or Wi-Fi, with long data retention because trends matter more than single readings. The caution is calibration: low-cost gas and particulate sensors drift and are affected by humidity, so their output needs correction against reference instruments before it is used for regulatory decisions. The Smart cities guide shows how municipalities use these networks.
Part of the IoT Glossary. Spotted an error or a missing term? Tell us.