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This article is an introduction to a symposium revolving around the beliefs of Don F. Hadwiger regarding the uses & abuses of the rural environment. Topics covered within this symposium include: historical interpretations of rural policy, local politics in rural America, local problems, moving from politics to public policy results, & a plan for providing a means for locating critical components of human capital at the local & regional level. 1 Reference. Adapted from the source document.

Building networks in rural areas is difficult because of the tough rural environments and low return to the service operators on investment. Rural networking and their applications in education, health, community development, and business development are essential to the daily life for both inhabitants and visitors. They further bring opportunities in job and business which play a key role in developing most underdeveloped rural areas. Moreover, rural communication will grow with the initial investment in rural networking. It will become the major communication market and generate large profits to service operators and equipment manufacturers. Wireless networking is generally considered a solution to these difficulties in rural conditions. Compared with the wireline construction, setting up wireless networks is faster, more flexible, and less expensive. In addition, many new and advanced wireless technologies have enabled universal communication to rural and remote areas in a profitable manner. Yet special technological requirements need to be met for wireless networking to become feasible in rural areas.

[EN] Due to the broad range of options that wireless systems offer, Wi-Fi products are increasingly being used in agriculture environments to improve farming practices and better control the output of the production. However, the foliage has proven to harm radio-frequency propagation as well as decreasing the coverage area of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs). Therefore, near-ground channel characterization can help in avoiding high antennas and vegetation. Nevertheless, theoretical models tend to fail when forecasting near-ground path losses. This paper aims at determining how the field components such as soil, grass and, trunks affect radio-links in near-ground scenarios. To do this, we measure the Received Signal Strength (RSSI), the Signal to Interference Ratio (SIR) and the Round-Trip Time (RTT) of a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN), at different distances, and the results are compared with 3 prediction models: the Free-Space Propagation Model, Two-Ray Ground Reflection Model and, One-Slope Log-Normal Model. The experiment was carried out by collecting experimental data at two different locations, i.e., an orange tree plantation and a field without vegetation, taking measurements every meter. A comprehensive analysis of the influence of rural environments can help to obtain better near-ground WSN performance and coverage in precision agriculture. ; This work has been partially supported by European Union through the ERANETMED project ERANETMED3- 227 SMARTWATIR, by the Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades through the Ayudas para la adquisición de equipamiento científico-técnico, Subprograma estatal de infraestructuras de investigación y equipamiento científico-técnico (plan Estatal I+D+i 2017- 2020) (project EQC2018-004988-P), by the Universidad de Granada through the "Programa de Proyectos de Investigación Precompetitivos para Jóvenes Investigadores. Modalidad A jóvenes Doctores of "Plan Propio de Investigación y Transferencia 2019" (PPJIA2019.10) and by the Campus de Excelencia Internacional ...

The number of forest fires that occurred in recent years in different parts of the world is causing increased concern in the population, as the consequences of these fires expand beyond the destruction of the ecosystem. However, with the proliferation of the Internet of Things (IoT) industry, solutions for early fire detection should be developed. The assessment of the fire risk of an area and the communication of this fact to the population could reduce the number of fires originated by accident or due to the carelessness of the users. This paper presents a low-cost network based on Long Range (LoRa) technology to autonomously evaluate the level of fire risk and the presence of a forest fire in rural areas. The system is comprised of several LoRa nodes with sensors to measure the temperature, relative humidity, wind speed and CO2 of the environment. The data from the nodes is stored and processed in a The Things Network (TTN) server that sends the data to a website for the graphic visualization of the collected data. The system is tested in a real environment and, the results show that it is possible to cover a circular area of a radius of 4 km with a single gateway. ; This work was partially supported by the "Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades" through the "Ayudas para la adquisición de equipamiento científico-técnico, Subprograma estatal de infraestructuras de investigación y equipamiento científico-técnico (plan Estatal I+D+i 2017-2020)" (project EQC2018-004988-P), by Universidad de Granada through the "Programa de Proyectos de Investigación Precompetitivos para Jóvenes Investigadores. Modalidad A jóvenes Doctores" of "Plan Propio de Investigación y Transferencia 2019" (PPJIA2019.10), by the Campus de Excelencia Internacional Global del Mar (CEI·Mar) through the "Ayudas Proyectos Jóvenes Investigadores CEI·Mar 2019", (Project CEIJ-020), by the European Union through the ERANETMED (Euromediterranean Cooperation through ERANET joint activities and beyond) (Project ERANETMED3-227 SMARTWATIR).