Monitoring System Enhancing the Potential of Urban Beekeeping
Szczurek A., Maciejewska M., Batog P.
Applied Sciences, 13(1):597
Urban Farm DB summary
Develops and evaluates an automated monitoring system for urban beekeeping's educational, greening and awareness benefits. Sensors, cameras and scales were deployed on hives on the roof of a four-storey university building in Wrocław; three months of operation confirmed the system works and that rooftop placement is a viable urban apiary model.
Key points
- 1Urban beekeeping aims to provide educational opportunities, promote urban greening, and raise environmental awareness, rather than focusing on financial profit.
- 2Specialized technical infrastructure, particularly modern technologies, can enhance urban beekeeping benefits and attract younger generations.
- 3This paper presents an automatic monitoring system designed to meet the goals of urban beekeeping.
- 4The system enables real-time observation of the beehive interior and entrance, continuous measurement of physical and chemical parameters of the hive atmosphere, recording of hive weight, and monitoring of ambient air.
- 5Video streaming and measurement results are made publicly available online through a dedicated webpage.
- 6Three months of operation confirmed the system is fully functional and fulfills its objectives.
Extracted facts
1 factOnly numbers and their conditions are stored, as structured data — never the source's own sentences. Metric and condition names stay in English, as coded.
- 3 months
monitoring operation duration(urban apiary)
Biodiversity- setting
- urban-apiary
- system
- automatic-beehive-monitoring
- measures
- beehive-atmosphere-parameters; beehive-weight; video; ambient-air-reference
Abstract and stored text
OpenAlexUrban beekeeping has become increasingly popular, despite having different objectives than the large-scale professional/commercial one. Not so much focused on financial profit, urban apiculture provides valuable educational opportunities, promotes the greening of cities, and creates environmental awareness. Many companies and institutions make it a valuable component of their public relations strategy. Urban beekeeping benefits may be enhanced by applying specialized technical infrastructure. In particular, the use of modern technologies attracts the younger generation to be involved in beekeeping. This paper aims to present the abilities of the automatic monitoring system, which meets the goals of urban beekeeping. The set of equipment consists of a sensor module, video cameras, a unit for data acquisition, and a system for data transmission, presentation, and visualization. The monitoring system allows for real-time observation of the beehive interior and entrance. It continuously measures selected physical and chemical parameters of the beehive atmosphere and provides a record of the beehive’s weight. Additionally, ambient air is monitored for reference. The video streaming and measurement results are available to the public online through the dedicated webpage. System performance was evaluated regarding the interactions with honey bees, sensor measurement characteristics, and data collection efficiency. Three months of operation in the urban apiary confirmed that the system is fully functional and fulfills its objectives. System development continues.
Why it matters for urban farming
This research is highly relevant for citizens interested in urban beekeeping. The automatic monitoring system makes beekeeping more accessible and educational by visualizing the hive's interior and environmental data in real-time. This allows for direct observation of bee behavior and hive health, deepening knowledge of apiculture. Furthermore, making information publicly available online can foster community participation and raise awareness about urban ecosystems and the importance of pollinators. The use of modern technology has the potential to attract younger generations to urban beekeeping and support sustainable urban farming practices.