Hydrological Monitoring with Hybrid Sensor Networks

Existing hydrological monitoring systems suffer from shortcomings in accuracy, resolution, and scalability. Their fragility, high power consumption, and lack of autonomy necessitate frequent site visits. Cabling requirements and large size limit their scalability and make them prohibitively expensive. The research described in this paper proposes to alleviate these problems by pairing high-resolution in situ measurement with remote data collection and software maintenance. A hybrid sensor network composed of wired and wireless connections autonomously measures various attributes of the soil, including moisture, temperature, and resistivity. The measurements are communicated to a processing server over the existing GSM cellular infrastructure. This system enables the collection of data at a scale and resolution that is orders of magnitude greater than any existing method, while dramatically reducing the cost of monitoring. The quality and sheer volume of data collected as a result will enable previously infeasible research in hydrology.