Supporting Environmental Surveillance on Construction Sites using Mobile Environmental Information System

Abstract

Data and data retrieval remain central to the challenge of environmental protection initiatives. Approaches such as walk-through inspections and environmental monitoring rely on environmental information that is concise, accurate, material timely and usable. However, current methods of collecting environmental data from the field are, on occasion, problematic in that they are labour-intensive and can take a considerable time to process between the point of collection and the period of analysis. These drawbacks create an obstacle for construction managers and can result in unnecessary environmental impacts, prosecutions and delays. Technological based surveillance has become an alternative in an attempt to overcome some of these disadvantages. But, in some circumstances it can be difficult to demonstrate a connection between the pollution detected and a specific source solely using these methods. Therefore, while physical environmental surveillance (observation/walk-through inspection) still remains important some improvements can be made through the application of Internet of Things technologies in order to accommodate the needs of both physical and technological based environmental surveillance in one system. This paper proposes a prototype of the Mobile Environmental Information System. This system is designed to assist construction environmental management teams to efficiently perform surveillance activities and make informed decisions in the light of a better awareness of the current status of environmental constraints and legislation. The user requirements, the conceptual model and the functional specifications as well as the system architecture for the prototype system presented in this paper will form the basis for the development of the prototype system.