Recently, our New Zealand team were asked to help with a monitoring project on the West Coast.

Dirk explains the project requirements and the solution that Van Walt was able to offer:

“The client wanted to better understand the hydraulic connectivity between wetland and local (perched) groundwater. The task then was to install a level monitoring sensor in the wetland and to drill and install a shallow piezometer with level sensor for the perched groundwater component. As the crow flies, the West Coast is not far from Wanaka but by road its more like 7 or 8 hours. So with nominal boots on the ground and a considerable distance for us and the client to cover, simplicity and robustness were key words in the brief.

Of late, my go to for piezometer monuments has been 150mm stormwater pipe. The pipe is very strong, light, inexpensive and innocuous. The latter quality being particularly handy. A passing glance at a 150mm drainpipe sticking out of the ground is uninteresting and frankly, a deterrent for would be thieves or vandals.

Hiding a datalogger inside is easy enough too but in this instance because of the remote nature of the site, the preference was for telemetric data to the cloud. This way, issues with the site and or equipment can be identified in relative real time. And… Our wee KISS pod does not require solar or other accessories and so fits nicely inside the pipe monument. Hidden from sight and protected from the West Coast weather and from cable chewing wildlife. So, with very little fanfare, we have two discreet pipes poking out of the ground and surface water that are quietly and reliably sending data to the cloud.

One more trick up the sleeve of these devices… At web end we can calculate/display depth to water “as if dipped measurement” or ESG, External Staff gauge. This allows the user to see at a glance meaningfully represented data. Side note… we can do complex polynomials for water flow characteristics and so on when the occasion requires.

KISS: Keep It Simple Sensing. Simple? Yes! And yet… Still powerful and versatile.”