Groundwater

A sensor measures the water level continuously and sends the values by radio or cellular network to an IoT platform. At the Port of Antwerp, groundwater table measurement runs over NB-IoT and LoRaWAN, networks that have proven themselves over long distances outdoors. Limit values are stored in the platform, and a notification is sent when a level falls below them. At the Kögelhof farm's well, a level sensor with ifm's io-key cellular gateway is all it takes.

Automated measurements replace manual readings at monitoring wells and deliver values at much shorter intervals. Stadtwerke Krefeld monitors groundwater levels for the Düsseldorf district government and is currently installing 450 sensors for this purpose. In future, measurements will be taken every hour. The data flows into the ThingsBoard IoT platform, which the utility runs itself and also uses for its district heating network and for its business customers' energy management.

A controller on the unit records operating data and faults and sends them to the cloud via cellular network. At Hüdig, the electronics sit in an IP54-rated control cabinet with a touch display, SIM card and cellular module. Site managers and foremen receive alarms by email or text message and can step in before water enters the excavation. The volumes of water pumped are documented at the same time, so external measuring devices are no longer needed.

On large sites, sensors measure the groundwater level automatically and send the readings via radio networks to a platform. At the Port of Antwerp, automatic groundwater level measurement is one of the applications of the AllThingsTalk IoT platform that ALSO built for the port authority. It uses Narrowband IoT and LoRaWAN, which have proven themselves over long distances outdoors. Across more than 152 square kilometres of port area, the same platform also reports missing lifebuoys.