Wireless Water Level Monitoring: Keeping Surface Mines and Civil Sites Safe and Productive

Wherever large-scale excavations are made, water build-up is almost certain to occur and more than likely become a problem that needs to be managed. This is usually because the water becomes trapped within the excavation and is unable to simply flow away, as would be the case in most naturally occurring water bodies.

Two of the most common man-made environments in which large amounts of standing water are often found are surface (open pit) mines, and civil engineering/construction sites.

In both cases, this water needs to be carefully monitored as it has the potential to disrupt operations, damage equipment, and possibly even become a safety hazard. The most common way to monitor water bodies in surface mines, civil engineering works, and large construction sites is by using standpipe piezometers (vibrating-wire or others, as relevant to the situation) that are installed at strategic locations throughout the mine or site.

Readings can then be taken at regular intervals from these instruments to determine if water levels are rising and pressure increasing. In some cases, data is still gathered manually, either by physically recording a reading from an old-type piezometer that contains a gauge or by using a hand-held data logger to extract data from each instrument and then transfer it to a computer (PC or desktop).

Obviously, this process is very slow, labour-intensive, and inefficient. Fortunately, it can be eliminated in almost all use cases by switching over to a wireless water level monitoring system instead, e.g. by linking piezometers up to five at a time to wireless nodes that then communicate with a comprehensive data acquisition system like the Loadsensing LS-G6.

Click here to find out more about this industry-leading system and how it can be used to facilitate hassle-free, accurate wireless water level monitoring within your mine, civil workings, or major construction site.