Environmental Monitoring of Rock Art Shelters in Remote Locations Using a Hybrid Satellite IoT Architecture: A Proof of Concept at a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Albarracín, Spain

Although prehistoric rock art shelters in remote locations require continuous environmental monitoring for preventive conservation, this need is frequently hindered by the absence of terrestrial connectivity. In this study, we present and validate a hybrid Internet of Things (IoT) monitoring architecture integrating low-power Long-Range Wide-Area Network (LoRaWAN) wireless ground-based sensors, edge computing, and dual terrestrial–satellite connectivity, designed for continuous climatic monitoring in heritage areas without terrestrial connectivity coverage. This proof of concept was conducted at the rock art shelter of Los Toros del Barranco de las Olivanas (Tormón, Teruel, Spain), a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage Site within the Albarracín Cultural Park (PCA), using Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO) satellite connectivity provided by EchoStar Mobile. Laboratory and outdoor tests at the Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV) achieved a satellite data delivery rate of 98.6%, while field deployment under adverse conditions—partial vegetation and terrain obstructions, cloudy and rainy weather—yielded a delivery rate of 78.2%, with 100% delivery from sensors to the edge gateway. The system operates below 10 W, enabling autonomous solar-powered deployment. Reliability can be raised above 95% by having the system confirm that each message is received and by managing the order in which messages are sent. The architecture reduces on-site visits by an estimated 75%, significantly lowering the carbon footprint of field campaigns. The proposed system is flexible, scalable, and compatible with future Non-Terrestrial Networks (NTNs), demonstrating that a satellite IoT constitutes a technically feasible solution for continuous environmental monitoring of remote heritage sites worldwide.