Radar Flood Warning System

After the successful implementation of a first pilot project in 2013, Adcon has continuously expanded the flood warning network in the Awash river basin in Ethiopia, deploying mostly radar level stations consisting of an OTT RLS sensor with an Adcon GPRS RTU.

A new Dual-Radar level and flow station

For the first time in 2014 Adcon has also deployed a new system, which cannot only measure the level of the river, but also determine its flow speed and calculate the flow. To this avail two radar sensors are mounted into one compact box: one sensor points vertically down to measure the level, the other one is angled forward to measure speed. With the cross section of the river programmed into the sensor, it can then autonomously calculate the flow.

Data transmission is as usual taken care of by an Adcon GPRS RTU, sitting inside the same cabinet that houses the power supply for the radar sensor. To avoid the installation of two solar panels, one for the sensor, one for the RTU, the RTU is also connected to the sensors battery via Adcon’s A922 Power Adapter.

Mixing UHF and GPRS

The ability to also provide UHF systems has shown its merits. In many cases the selected sites on the banks of the river simply had no GSM coverage. Not a problem for Adcon! An A753 UHF station was deployed with the sensor on the river, transmitting its data to the nearest GSM cell, where an RA440 bridge was installed, collecting data from the level site by UHF radio, and then forwarding it to the A850 Telemetry Gateway, installed at the Ministries office in Addis Ababa, by GPRS.