The Internet of Things (IoT) is emerging as a powerful enabler in many application domains, such as water and energy management, environmental monitoring, health, smart cities, smart industry and supply chain management. The IoT has the potential to address some of the most acute human, economic and environmental needs. It can also directly contribute to achieving the targets in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Accordingly, the emerging IoT paradigm has the potential to create an efficient, effective and secure ecosystem taking advantage of connected devices for managing the major global challenges faced by this, and future generations. In this context, at the 7th IoT Week, the IoT research and industry community, together with the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and other stakeholders, took the opportunity to express their support for researching, developing and leveraging IoT technologies for sustainable development and for building a brighter future for our planet and its inhabitants.
Declaration
We, the participants of the IoT Week 2017 (6-9 June 2017), strive to promote international dialogue and cooperation for innovation in IoT with regard to the following key activities [1]:
- Promoting the development and adoption of IoT technologies for the benefit of humanity, the environment and sustainable development. This includes promoting the research and the use of IoT technologies to address the 17 Sustainable Development Goals adopted by the United Nations and the international community. Governments and policy-makers from developed and developing countries should be encouraged to examine the future challenges and benefits to their economies and accelerate global competitiveness of their economy, region, continent and people by establishing plans and strategies to leverage IoT for SDGs.
- Supporting the implementation of the IoT in urban and rural context to foster the application of ICTs in providing services to build smarter and more sustainable cities and communities. This will allow urban and community stakeholders to take advantage of technological advances and offer new opportunities for quality of life for different strata of society, by promoting accessibility to amenities, technologies and services (including social infrastructure, energy, water and healthcare), and by supporting IoT systems and data interoperability.
- Promoting a broad, vibrant and secure ecosystem for IoT, including support for start-ups and incubators. This includes promoting policies to facilitate research, innovation and development of new solutions and eliminating policies that restrict job creation, hinder economic growth or prevent innovation. It may also include appropriate incentives, and policies to promote IoT deployment, privacy protection and secure data management. This will gradually assist in fostering an IoT data market, which contributes to the consolidation of sustainable business models and cooperation among stakeholders.
- Encouraging the development and implementation of standards that facilitate interoperability among IoT technologies and solutions in order to pave the way to an open and interoperable IoT ecosystem, with cost-effective solutions in line with the vision for an open economy.
- Adopting new and innovative IoT applications to deal with challenges associated with hunger, water supply, and food security through resource monitoring to cope with the increasing consumption needs of a global population. By leveraging IoT, sensors can detect and monitor water leaks, potential contamination, soil moisture, pollutions, weather conditions, livestock movements, while remotely managing and controlling harvesters and irrigation equipment to improve the quality, quantities, yield rates, cost-effectiveness, energy efficiency and sustainability of agricultural production, including the packaging and transportation of food supplies. IoT can also be used for research and analysis into water-borne diseases and potentially new types of diseases.
- Galvanizing interest in the use of IoT for risk reduction and climate change mitigation, taking into consideration the diversity and complexity of the Earth’s geography and vulnerable populations. The IoT framework has the ability to gather and analyze real-time information for proactive prevention and faster response to deal with toxic wastes and pollutants, disasters and other natural calamities.
- Identifying and supporting the growing trend of using IoT technologies for education and improving the access of disadvantaged and excluded groups to ICT infrastructure by promoting basic ICT literacy, virtual classrooms and interactive vocational training programmes for vulnerable segments of society.
- Embracing the application and use of IoT for biodiversity conservation and ecological monitoring to protect the natural life and its diversity on land, air and below waters. IoT can help monitor natural ecosystems, as well as sanctuaries, detect threats linked to poaching, overfishing (or illegal fishing) and deforestation and can send alerts in real-time to authorities for immediate response.
- Contributing to global research and discussions on IoT for smart and sustainable cities through global initiatives such as United for Smart Sustainable Cities (U4SSC). ICT-based transformative action for sustainable urban development can help highlight efficient, transparent, and equitable regulatory frameworks, inclusive planning systems, effective financial management with increased transparency and accountability to all inhabitants and urban stakeholders alike, which should help accelerate the transition to smart sustainable cities and communities.
- Promoting international dialogue and cooperation on the IoT for sustainable development by bringing the various stakeholders together, including inter alia the academic and research community, the specialized international organizations and fora, the industry, SMEs and start-ups, the governments and public authorities (including smart cities), and other relevant stakeholders such as specialized NGOs and indigenous peoples.
