Pervasive wireless sensor networks for the monitoring of large monumental structures: The case of the ancient city Walls of Siena

In this paper, a solution for the pervasive monitoring of large monumental structures based on the use of Wireless Sensor Networks is presented. In particular, the paper focuses on the case of the Ancient City Walls of the city of Siena, Italy, that still surround the whole historic centre and require a real time monitoring of the cracks present in several points. Two different network topologies are presented for the deployment of a pervasive monitoring infrastructure, and a novel sensing platform based on the use of Hall effect based sensors is presented. The architecture of the whole sensor node is described, together with the laboratory test phase that proves the effectiveness of the proposed solution. The proposed solution is expected to be deployed in a 1.8Km section of the city walls in the next months.