In this use case description we will show how ThingsLog Level monitoring solution helped to DAM owners to monitor level and get early warnings from their dams.
The challenge of helping dam owners manage more than 100 dams
The Eastern Aegen River Basin Directorate from Bulgaria is tasked with helping dam owners manage more than 100 dams throughout the region.
Monitoring high water levels at dam sites is a critical responsibility of dam owners, who had to send staff to each individual site to physically observe and measure water levels.
This proved to be costly and inefficient, especially during severe weather (e.g., storms) when the water level has the potential to quickly rise across multiple locations.
Plus, the inability to swiftly notify the nearby population of impending flooding could lead to severe consequences, especially for those living downstream. With these challenges in mind, one of the department’s dam engineers contacted ThingsLog seeking an efficient, effective solution that would allow the department and dam owners to remotely monitor the water levels at each dam site.
Solution
ThingsLog recommended the ThingsLog Level Monitoring Solution based on – LPMDL-1102 – a cellular NB-IoT data logger, web-enabled water level monitoring solution that can be used for stormwater, floodwater, irrigation, hydrologic, and other environmental applications.
The system has pre-programmed hydrological water flow formulas for select weirs, flumes, and a stage-discharge table, which results in an easy and intuitive configuration.
Configuration data is sent directly to the logger thus it is able to sense and alarm immediately for low/high-level conditions. In addition, the data NB-IoT dam monitoring solution is sending in a low power way the level data to the ThingsLog platform every couple of hours.
The compact, competitively priced station, with its non-vented water level sensor, withstands deployment in harsh conditions and provides the reliable monitoring needed for critical applications like dam monitoring.
The LPMDL-1102 low-power data logger is battery or solar powered, supports a wide range of plug-and-play smart sensors for flexible environmental monitoring.
Results
Since installing ThingsLog level monitoring solution at each of the state’s dam locations, the department, along with dam owners, is monitoring water levels remotely via ThingsLog RMMAS, ThingsLog’s cloud-based software platform. In addition, support personnel of each dam has ThingsLog mobile app where they get instant alerts and graphs.
Most importantly, they now rely on remote alarms that trigger at the time of measurement, so they can take quick and pointed response actions, if necessary.
Physical observation and measurement have been virtually eliminated, saving time and money, and allowing resources to be deployed elsewhere.
Manual calculations have also been eliminated and replaced with pre-programmed formulas. And because the ThingsLog data loggers are highly durable and can withstand harsh environments, they do not have to be pulled from the water during winter months, which is another advantage for the dam owners.
