WildSaver: Advancing Wildlife Conservation with UAVs and Blockchain Technology
Afifa Islam Ananna, Mahedul Hasan Rifat, Shanjida Akter, Towshick Intesir Ahmed Rain, Nafees Mansoor
Conference Paper. World Conference on Information Systems for Business Management (pp. 475-483). Singapore: Springer Nature Singapore (2023).
Abstract
Improvements in technology have become fundamental tools for researchers and conservationists—as the dire need for efficient wildlife monitoring and conservation initiatives is increasing rapidly. This research paper proposes a unique approach of wildlife monitoring to solve limited coverage, data manipulation and inefficient management issues. UAV swarms will be utilized to collect data on animal behavior, aerial surveys, tracking and environmental monitoring. A cluster communication topology is employed to organize and facilitate efficient communication between individual UAVs. To provide security and immutability of data, blockchain technology has been introduced. Each participating UAV acts as a node, recording captured data and sensor readings as transactions in the blockchain. Smart contracts will guarantee safe data ownership, authorizations and permissions. Additionally, a consensus algorithm will be employed to verify transactions and add blocks to the blockchain ledger. The InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) has been considered as a data storage solution. The proposed system will offer a trustworthy and secure wildlife monitoring platform for researchers and conservationists, enabling access to impenetrable data, leading to better analysis and decision-making. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2024.
Keywords
Blockchain, File system, Immutability, InterPlanetary, Security, Unmanned aerial vehicles, Wildlife monitoring