Applying wireless sensor networks to renaturation monitoring: From requirements to deployment

In Germany, renaturation of former coal mining regions is an important topic. One of these regions, called Chicken Creek, is used by ecologists to observe the development of an initial ecosystem without human interference - a scenario that seems perfect for a wireless sensor network. However, the sensor network applications are still mostly designed from scratch for every new scenario. The reason for this are strongly differing user requirements. This time-consuming problem can be overcome by providing a reusable module pool from which hard- and software components can be chosen. Based upon this module pool, a semi-automatic generation of sensor network applications becomes possible. In this paper we focus on the differences between the aforesaid theory and the practice during the initial deployment.