Environmental monitoring and disaster mitigation are critical applications of underwater acoustic sensor networks (UASNs). However, UASNs face significant challenges, including high latency, limited bandwidth, and energy constraints. This study introduces an Internet of Things (IoT)-driven location-aware framework (ILAF) designed to enhance UASN performance by utilizing non-GPS geographic coordinates for determining the location of sensor and sink nodes, identifying their neighbors based on coordinates and transmission range, and optimizing node placement and routing without the need for GPS modems. The framework is compared with several state-of-the-art protocols, including Bald Eagle Search inspired optimized energy efficient routing protocol (BES-OEERP) and IoT-enabled depth-based routing technique (IDBR), demonstrating superior performance. Specifically, ILAF achieved a packet delivery ratio (PDR) of 99%, which outperforms energy-efficient region-based source distributed routing algorithm (EERSDRA) (98%) and energy-efficient geo-opportunistic routing protocols (EEGORP) (96%). Additionally, ILAF reduced energy consumption by 20% compared to these existing protocols. These improvements result in a more energy-efficient network with fewer dead nodes (12 after 1,000 rounds) and higher throughput (5.7 kbps at 1,000 rounds), making ILAF suitable for real-time underwater applications. Future research will explore integrating lightweight IoT protocols like Message Queue Telemetry Transport (MQTT) and Constrained Application Protocol (CoAP) to enhance the framework's performance and reliability further.