Research project coordinated by the Frederick Research Center
The Frederick Research Center (FRC) announces the launch of the Green-HIT (Green Holistic IoT platform for forest management and monitoring) research project, which it coordinates. The inaugural meeting of the project consortium was held at Frederick University in Nicosia on February 6 with the participation of members of the Green-HIT consortium from the “Eratosthenes” Center of Excellence, the Cerides Research Center E.U.C. and the companies CY.R.I.C and I.A.C.O.
The Green-HIT project concerns the management and monitoring of forest areas through the development of a holistic IoT (Internet of Things) platform that will support prevention, detection and response to forest fires and provide reforestation recommendations. It will also support the protection of forests from illegal logging and poaching, monitoring of forest areas, and forest mapping and inventory by collecting and analyzing field and remote sensing data. To implement the project's objectives, cutting-edge technologies such as machine learning, image processing from satellites and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), analysis and processing of data from ground sensors and sensors embedded in UAVs will be used.
“Our aim is through this project to radically change the way we manage and monitor our forests, providing substantial support to forest departments and dependent communities. In addition, we will be able to provide data for research to scientific communities while regulatory authorities will have access to analysis of this data so that they are able to make decisions and act accordingly,” says Dr. Andreas Konstantinidis, FRC researcher and coordinator of the Green-HIT project, Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical, Computer and Informatics Engineering at Frederick University and Director of the University's Mobile Devices Laboratory (MDL). “With our partners we have identified several challenges related to forest management and through this project, we want to jointly develop a new, cost-effective solution to address them”, explains Dr. Konstantinidis.
Frederick Research Center (FRC) is a leading research organization in Cyprus that develops research in collaboration with international research bodies, employing highly qualified academic/research staff with long experience in conducting research. Several Research, Development and Innovation (RDI) projects have been implemented through the FRC, to which FRC research staff contribute with access to Frederick University's laboratory infrastructure. To date, the FRC has participated in more than 140 projects in the fields of Applied Sciences and Technology, Health Sciences and Social Sciences, through European, regional and national funds.
The Green-HIT project has ensured a fund of 600 thousand euros and is implemented with the funding of the European Union – NextGenerationEU through the “Collaborative Development” program of the Research and Innovation Foundation (IDEK).
