National Geographic Explorers Connect the Okavango Delta to the IoT

Drones capable of detecting illegal logging in the Amazon Rainforest. Sensor networks to help research the dwindling honeybee population. Smart solar-powered waste collection. This is all happening today thanks to the Internet of Things. In addition to new technologies, the open-source movement has made it possible to share hardware designs, software and even data-making it easy for anyone to aid the global effort to preserve the ecosystems we depend on.

This summer, a team of National Geographic explorers are taking a 1,000 mile journey down the Okavango River in an effort to collect environmental data, discover new species and measure the heartbeat of one of the most remote wetlands in the world. And it’s all being done with Internet connected devices.

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Data artist and National Geographic Emerging Explorer Jer Thorp gets up close—sometimes terrifyingly close—to wild animals in the Okavango Delta and records his experiences as interactive visualizations, allowing anyone with an Internet connection to take a real-time journey deep into the Okavango.

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