Evaporation and Seepage Dam Monitor

• Price: 13230
• Comms: SDI-12 Pulse Cellular

A 400 Ha earthen water reservoir typically loses 6.4 Gigalitres of water ($3.2million/yr@$500/Ml) to evaporation each year and can lose a variable amount up to many time that to seepage each year. Accurate measurement and separation of seepage from evaporation losses is practical using our monitoring system. A modular weather station is paired with water level monitoring on the reservoir. Data is collected and transmitted using a YDOC logger with cellular modem (WiFi and Satellite comms are optional). In the Internet-cloud, we configure processing of data and report to a website dashboard that can be viewed anytime and even projected to a dedicated screen at a farm office. The price given includes all components for such a system and first year operating costs but not installation. For us to convert from mm/day of evaporation and seepage, to megalitres per day for an entire reservoir and to monitor how much is left in the storage we must also accurately survey the reservoir which we do while mapping soil textures and seepage pathways using our HERBI electrical resistivity tomography system (used on water) or AgTEM-Wallaroo electromagnetic imaging system (used on dry reservoirs but can be used on water). This creates a stage table for the conversion. Water level drop is accurately measured and evaporation calculated is subtracted to give seepage rate when other inputs and outputs are zero. Accuracy is increased by summing periods without operational inputs and outputs. This system includes:

YDOC logger,

SIM card,

data storage,

web dashboard,

Logger post,

Vega C21 radar water level sensor and swing arm for installation on a reservoir walkway (pressure sensors are an alternative and cost more),

Radiation screen,

Temperature, Rel. Humidity, Barometer,

Rika Solar Radiation sensor,

Wind speed and Wind direction sensors,

Stainless steel rain gauge,

Solar panel and battery,

Puck antenna (Stick or Yagi are options).