Intelligent Information Management in Aquaponics to Increase Mutual Benefits

Aquaponics are feedback and two player systems, in which fish and crops mutually benefit from one another and, therefore require close monitoring, management and control. Vast amount of data and information flow from the aquaponics plant itself with its huge amount of smart sensors for water quality, fish and plant growth, system state etc. and from the stakeholder, e.g., farmers, retailers and end consumers. The intelligent management of aquaponics is only possible if this data and information are managed and used in an intelligent way. Therefore, the main focus of this paper is to introduce an intelligent information management (IIM) for aquaponics. It will be shown how the information can be used to create services such as predictive analytics, system optimization and anomaly detection to improve the aquaponics system. The results show that the system enabled full traceability and transparency in the aquaponics processes (customers can follow what is going on at the farm), reduced water and energy use and increased revenue through early fault detection. In this, paper the information management approach will be introduced and the key benefits of the digitized aquaponics system will be given.