Smart sensors monitor water at Australian lake

William Atkins
Wednesday, 13 May 2009 18:00

Science - Climate

Lake Wivenhoe, near Brisbane, is being monitored by a high-tech wireless sensor network in order to test its quality as a major source of drinking water for about 1.5 million people.


Located about 80 kilometers (50 miles) from Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, Lake Wivenhoe was created when the Wivenhoe Dam was built across the Brisbane River.

The reservoir is approximately the size of the city of Brisbane—with a surface area of about 104 square kilometers, along with a catchment area (land surrounding the lake used to collect water) of approximately 5,550 square kilometers.

As a major source of drinking water for residents of southeast Queensland, Lake Wivenhoe is being monitored by the national organization Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) and SEQWater, a local Queensland water authority.

The two organizations are teaming up in their water quality monitoring and assessment with the use of CSIRO’s FLECK (trademarked) high-tech integrated intelligent wireless sensor network.

The Fleck devices consist of a central processing unit (CPU) with off-chip flash memory and a radio transceiver. Some sensor boards are built into each device, while other boards may be added as needed.

Additional information on the FLECK network is found at the ICT Centre website of “Wireless Sensor Network Devices.”

Page two discusses information provided by a CSIRO research scientist on this high-tech water monitoring system.