An Exploratory Study On The Intention To Adopt Internet Of Things In Weather Forecasting By The Kenya Meteorological Department

Internet of Things has been described as a system of related computing devices, machines, animals or people that are provided with unique identifiers to capture and transfer data over a network without requiring human intervention or human-to-computer interaction. It has been used in several fields such as surveillance, tracking and weather forecasting. Weather forecasting is the process by which the state of the atmosphere and the weather conditions are predicted for some future period. Weather forecasting is important for individuals and organizations. Accuracy of weather forecasts can tell a resident in a coastal area of the impending danger when a hurricane might strike, an airport tower controller of what information should be sent to planes that are landing or taking off and a farmer of the best time to plant.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the challenges of the current weather forecasting practices in Kenya with a view to address them by creating a framework that would enable the adoption of Internet of Things (IoT) technology. This study used descriptive research design methodology to meet its objectives; it focused on developing a framework for the adoption of IoT by the Kenya Meteorological Department. The study found that the current weather forecasting practices in Kenya were not satisfactory. The challenges identified in weather forecasting were: few weather stations especially at the county level, lack of funding to carry out projects that will enhance weather forecasting practices, lack of adequate staff some of whom work 24 hours thus affecting their efficiency, the current systems that cannot measure cloud cover accurately and insecurity of their automated weather stations. The study revealed that the various benefits that would be derived from the use of IoT were: sensing accuracy, large area coverage, minimal human interaction, sensor nodes can be deployed in harsh environments that make the sensor networks more effective, fault tolerance, transmission of real-time data and dynamic sensor scheduling. This research study therefore suggested a possible solution to alleviate the technological challenges currently faced by the meteorological department of Kenya which were the adoption of a framework that will enable successful adoption of Internet of Things for weather forecasting, purchase of new equipment for weather forecasting and training of the users on how to use IoT.