Structural Health of Buildings: Proper maintenance of the
historical buildings of a city requires the continuous monitoring
of the actual conditions of each building and identification of
the areas that are most subject to the impact of external agents.
The urban IoT may provide a distributed database of building
structural integrity measurements, collected by suitable sensors
located in the buildings, such as vibration and deformation
sensors to monitor the building stress, atmospheric agent sensors
in the surrounding areas to monitor pollution levels, and temperature
and humidity sensors to have a complete characterization
of the environmental conditions [11]. This database should
reduce the need for expensive periodic structural testing by
human operators and will allow targeted and proactive maintenance
and restoration actions. Finally, it will be possible to
combine vibration and seismic readings in order to better study
and understand the impact of light earthquakes on city buildings.
This database can be made publicly accessible in order to make
the citizens aware of the care taken in preserving the city
historical heritage. The practical realization of this service,
however, requires the installation of sensors in the buildings
and surrounding areas and their interconnection to a control
system, which may require an initial investment in order to create
the needed infrastructure.