The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) published on a new international standard, ISO/IEC 30179, on internet of things (IoT) systems for ecological environment monitoring for natural entities such as air, water, soil and living organisms, covering not only system infrastructures and entities but also general requirements. It was prepared by the joint technical committee established by both organisations.

The IoT systems are a powerful tool for monitoring the impacts of human activities on the environment as it allows the real-time collection of data from various sources such as growth meters, infrared cameras and sensors for natural entities. This helps design appropriate and timely responses to changes in the ecosystem.

By guiding real-time monitoring and a standardised approach for IoT based eco-environment monitoring, the new standard can improve interoperability among systems, enabling the full utilisation of the observed data for different eco-environment applications.

Relevant stakeholders that could benefit from this international standard include public users, data scientists, monitoring organisations, government agencies and developers of monitoring systems.