Low-Cost Automation for Hydrological Monitoring in Water Resources Management

摘要

To properly manage water resources, data acquisition through environmental monitoring is required. However, the cost of professional sophisticated hydrological monitoring equipment may be prohibitive for many locations around the world. This work aims to develop a low-cost data collection platform (L-DCP) to be used to densify the hydrological monitoring network for rainfall, small rivers level and water temperature. Low cost sensors were compared to professional ones and presented an excellent correlation, with the coefficient of determination higher than 0.99 for temperature. The L-DCP was kept activated and collecting data for over 150 days without major problems. The low-cost solution has approximately 9% of the cost of a professional solution.