New Zealand is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean with an average temperature ranging between 10 ¡ C and 16 ¡ C making it have a very diverse climate depending on your location either a very wet climate or a semi-arid climate .It is approximately 1,500 kilometers or about 900 miles east of Australia with a population of about 5 million people. New Zealand faces many environmental issues such as water pollution, soil erosion, and air quality pollution.

Water pollution is a very important environmental problem to New Zealand because New Zealand is very well know for its diverse animals, especial sea life, they have an amazing variety of marine life such as the Maui dolphin. [7] However with the idea of expansion and globalization New Zealand has drastically changed its ecosystem by taking up a greater land area for infrastructures and farming, it has created complications with their wild life, especially the ocean around them. Approximately 40 percent of the county's land area is used for agricultural farming and planning and with normal farming comes the feces from said animals, which tends stays on the land and is carried away when it rains. [1] Water pollution is a very important environmental issue because bacteria from animal fecal waste and fertilizers especially. [4] Fertilizers are made out of very dangerous/harmful chemicals like nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium that are manufactured to kill weeds and other flora, however not only does it destroy the plants, according to a study conducted by Pamela Matson and Ivan Ortiz nitrogen which is Òderived largely from farm fertilizers, is overloading our air and waterwaysÉit is a potent contributor to global warming, stratospheric ozone depletion, water pollution and ecosystem degradation. [8]

Poor air quality in New Zealand is yet another environmental issue that is affecting the people at heart causing more than 300 deaths per years because of lung cancer and there are many other diseases that their effects have not yet been released. [2] Even though New Zealand is a very small country compared to the size of its neighbors like Australia and even the United States, New Zealand has higher air pollution than them (World Health Organization Research 10.15.12). The number one reason as to why New Zealand air pollution is so huge compared to its size is related to its weather which tends to be very cold and raining throughout the year, which makes home heating the primary contributor to air pollution. Another possible explanation why the country has high air pollution could be caused because of the transportation in Auckland because of it's the largest and most populous urban city, which has around 32% of the countries total population. There is no doubt that there is also a correlation between Water and Air pollution because as more land and fertilizer (pesticides) are used for farming and cattle most of the trees are cut down and removed. At first no noticeable effect can be seen, however by removing trees and vegetation from the land, the ecosystem is deprived from its natural way of recycling its carbon dioxide into fresh, clean, healthy oxygen through photosynthesis. This process is important because plants take in carbon dioxide and give out oxygen as a clean product, this would not only help remove pollution in air but as well help lower New Zealand's premature mortality rate which to date is approximately 1,100. [6]

Another issue that is affecting New Zealand is electronica waste. Each year alone an estimate of 80,000 tons of electrical waste are produce. This includes computers, televisions, microwaves, mp3 players, remote controls, etc. Some of the components are recycled but most of the technology is deposited into landfills, until the landfill is full and gets shipped elsewhere. The problem here is that there is no easy way for consumers to recycle their old electronics. This is mainly due to the fact that the government does not enforce this, and companies are not reliable or responsible for the recycling of their products. Even though the government does offer programs that will make it easier to recycle e-waste, it is no free service. In return only 1% or 800 tons of electronica waste is recycles, and more people tend to have their equipment deposited in landfills. Most of the e-waste poses Òsignificant medical and environmental riskÓ by the substances that they are made out of. This can contaminate the soil with toxic elements like lead and mercury that can transfer to nearby water systems or irrigations cannels that are used for crops.

New Zealand has already taken action into solving the above environmental issues that are affecting its ecosystem and there is a small amount of improvement, however they are not taking advantage of the technology information that can be used to better manage the problem. One solution that would help diagnose the areas that are most in need of help would be to utilize sensors in the cities and around them to help calculate how much carbon dioxide emissions are being produced in that area. Some of this devices have already been developed and even deployed in forest to measure rainfall. Its important to measure how much emissions are more dominant, because instead of targeting the entire area as a whole, we can target specific areas to gain higher success, which would show by actually reducing the air pollution around major cities in New Zealand, and its surrounding cities.

Those sensors are not just able to focus on air quality but as well are able to detect many more chemicals. The same sensors can be used to test the soil and water around farmlands and rivers to examine the water for contaminants such as nitrogen, and phosphorus from animal feces and or pesticide. This would allow them to form an emergency awareness system that would alert the people that the water isn't safe, which has the possibility to save the lives of the people and livestock from getting poisoned. However these devices would have to be durable and should be water resistant and must not have a impact on the environment that it's collecting data from. This is similar to our reading about sensors in class, and also tree planation where we must target a specific area that would increase the opportunities on the surrounding environments. It should also be possible to use e-waste to create many devises that would not require manufacturing and could be recycled into different infrastructures such as servers that are used as a form of communications from the sensor to a host machine and give/receive commands and information, such as battery level or environment data.

In conclusion New Zealand just like any other country has its own environmental issues, and has taken steps to maintain a green ecosystem, however it still needs to used more of the information technology spectrum to better understand solve the issues. As well as invest in renewable energy and renewable technology that can work with minimal resources while producing reliable data. New Zealand has the capability to improve its resources and ecosystem, have a diverse ecosystem and land gives it the opportunity to go green and help control its pollution on Earth.