A multi-disciplinary R&D project between CENSIS, the University of Glasgow and SEPA to design and deploy a sensor system network to support sustainability in Scottish water resources.
Responsible management of water in Scotland ensures there is enough supply in rivers, lochs and groundwater to protect wildlife, maintain supplies of safe drinking water while also letting businesses and farmers take water for their own needs.
Taking water for agriculture or industrial use is managed via a licence. Holders take an agreed amount annually and can take water anytime – provided they stay within their annual limit. Businesses and farmers currently have limited sight of the water available to them, or what others around them are using. While they may use things like local weather forecasts, this is not easily translated into the actual amount of water that is available locally.
A partnership between, CENSIS, SEPA and the University of Glasgow’s School of Mathematics and Statistics, is working together to develop and deploy a network of sensors that could provide data all year round, and remove any issues of uncertainty around water availability. The Elliot Water catchment near Arbroath was chosen as the IoT sensor test bed for the project.
Installed during the Covid lockdown of summer 2020, read more about how SEPA – with support from CENSIS and the University of Glasgow – built and deployed the IoT network in a blog post from SEPA engineer, Bryce Syme.
You can also follow this project on Twitter at @SEPASENSORNET