Ground Water Level Monitoring - VTM

Sustainable solar-powered pumps that use LoRa technology.

Farmers who have to irrigate their crops, especially during dry periods, are usually reliant on large diesel pumps to power their irrigation systems. Due to the increasing frequency of dry periods caused by climate change, farmers in the Netherlands are using these systems more and more.

Not only is this a significant cost for farmers and consumes a lot of fuel, it also results in a substantial emission of CO2 and other harmful substances. A sustainable and cheaper alternative are solar-powered pumps that can be turned on and off with sensors that communicate via the KPN LoRa network. This is called Climate Adaptive Drainage (CAD).

Real-time monitoring

IoT sensors can be installed in the solar-powered pumps to monitor various parameters, such as water level, pump performance, battery charge level, and solar panel output. This data can be transmitted in real-time to Collactr, where it can be analyzed and used to optimize pump performance and detect any issues.

With the real-time data collected by the IoT sensors, farmers can optimize the energy usage of their solar-powered pumps. For example, they can turn off the pump when the water level is low to conserve energy or turn it on when the sun is shining the brightest to maximize solar panel output.

Staying in control

Water can be temporarily retained in the soil in exceptional cases of heavy rainfall. One advantage for water boards is that this saves them money because pumping capacity and/or storage areas can be more cost-effectively accommodated. Collactr can send downlink messages to the pumps, allowing farmers to turn them on and off from anywhere. This is particularly useful during dry periods when the pumps need to be turned on to irrigate crops.

Read more about this case here (in Dutch).