Pairing electronics with instrumentation to ensure remote hydrological monitoring in real time based on LORAWAN radio-transmission.
The CEA Cadarache centre has a network of about 400 piezometers used to monitor the weather and hydrological conditions; some are installed in boreholes to monitor underground water sources, while 230 of them are currently instrumented with autonomous probes. This network covers a surface area of about 1600 hectares.
The purpose of this remote monitoring platform is to predict the risks associated with exceptional rain events (such as the risk of flooding due to rising water tables) based on the level of this water table and weather forecasts.
As part of this platform, the teams at the IRESNE Nuclear Technology Department (DTN) needed to design a remote transmission device to meet the following pre-defined technical criteria:
- Data feedback in real time at regular frequencies (up to every 6 minutes),
- Compatibility with most off-the-shelf sensors/ probes,
- Monitoring range of several square kilometres,
- Sufficient data transmission during deteriorated weather conditions,
- Energy-independent device that can be easily transported and deployed onsite,
- Local data backup in the event of server failure,
- Eliminate the need for a GPRS connection at the different measurement points.