Design and Development of Real-time landslide early warning system through low cost soil and rainfall sensors

Abstract

Development of cost effective early warning systems is of paramount importance for real time monitoring of natural hazards such as Landslides, Floods, Earthquake etc. The present research work discusses about the design and development of cost effective early warning system for monitoring shallow debri landslides. The warning system consist of field unit and remote network interface. The field system includes the rainfall, temperature, humidity, soil temperature, soil moisture and Tiltmeter as primary sensors for monitoring the landslide movements with an independent power supply of 50 W solar panel. The datasets that are received are stored in the local data logger with the help of microsd card. Real time monitoring of the datasets and analysis was made possible by storing the datasets in remote Database Management System. These datasets are transmitted via the Global System for Mobile communication module installed at the field unit. In order to convey the alerts during emergency time a simple visual message has been adopted for the current model. Level I, Level II and Level III, Level I being the threshold values are within the desired limit and actions are not necessary and Level III denotes threshold values have exceeded the set limit and warning are issued to local stake holders. A pilot study of the Early Warning System has been installed on site for quality checks of the sensor & data and the results were monitored. The model developed not only can address the early warning signs of mass movement but also can be calibrated to predict flood in major streams based on rainfall intensity.