Monitoring the Greenhouse Gas Emissions in Dairy Cattle Farms. The MITIgA Project

This paper shows the first results of the research project MITIgA (Monitoraggio ed Innovazione Tecnologica per la riduzione dell'Impatto Ambientale degli allevamenti zootecnici - Monitoring and Technological Innovation for Reducing the Environmental Impact of Livestock Farming) aimed at the monitoring of greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions in dairy cattle farm in Sicily. The project is based on in situ measurements of volatile compounds (NH₃, CH₄, CO₂, CO, N₂O, H₂O) with high-end portable spectrophotometers based on the FTIR (Fourier-Transform-Infrared) measurement principle and can be used to assess the influence of cattle housing conditions on emissions. Coupled with this will be the experimentation of surveying with uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs) equipped with detectors with specific sensors (electrochemical, Non-Dispersive-Infra-Red-NDIR) for monitoring GHG. Coupled with this, the project aims to develop and implement a low-cost Internet of Things (IoT) sensor-based platform that is cost-effective and highly adaptable for the multi-temporal measurement of GHGs.