Design & Development of Ground Water level monitoring & Recording unit.

Scarcity of water is a matter of primary concern. Appropriate measurement of water availability in the form of ground water and surface water are essential for Environmental Planning. Proper management and adoption of water with appropriate technology can solve these problems to some extent. So data of Ground Water and water level changes are of primary importance in planning and management of water resources. Application of electronics/advanced technology for measuring ground water levels, and utilization of this data in the analysis of water levels can lead to better management of water resources.

This developed instrument aims at monitoring, recording and representation of ground water levels from bore wells, dug wells, and other sources. For this purpose an Intelligent Field Instrument (IFI) and Instrument Interface Software (IIS) are developed. The IFI will be located in field, where measurement of ground water level takes place and IIS will be loaded in PC, which will be connected to IFI. The PC loaded with IIS can be connected to IFI only during reading the recorded data of IFI and calibrating the instrument. The IFI measures accurate ground water level readings with the help of inbuilt custom designed transducer as per sample intake time set by user through IIS. The same data can be recorded in non-volatile memory of IFI. The IFI located at different sites can be connected to PC (one unit at a time) serially, which runs IIS. IIS acquires recorded data of these IFIs and stores the same in PC database. This database can be used in preparing ground water tables, which will be useful in analysis of Ground Water movements and proper management of water resources. IIS also interacts with IFI while calibrating the instrument and setting the various user settings like sample time, average in-take time, date, time, etc. The IFI also displays real-time data of ground water level in engineering units. The IFI is designed to compensate all types of disturbances from the measurement and environmental side.

This is a low cost and reliable technology, designed to operate in adverse Indian climatic conditions. Overall, the features of the system are as follows:

• Water level measurement in bore wells, dug wells, canals and rivers

• Full Scale measuring range: 0 to 50 mtrs

• Recording of upto 32,000 samples

• Real time Continuous digital display of water levels

• Manual/Auto calibrating facility

• User friendly software for data acquisition, representation, analysis and calibration

• + 5mm accuracy

• Operability in all climatic conditions

• Data base maintenance in PC

• This instrument consists of three units.
  · Measuring Section
  · Intelligent Processing and Recording Unit (IPRU)
  · Instrument Interface software (IIS) for PC

Measuring Section: The measuring section reads the depth of water levels along with different disturbances, which affects the actual ground water levels. All these signals will be converted into voltages and amplified to the required levels by the signal conditioning unit attached to this section.

Intelligent Processing and Recording Unit: This unit calculates actual water level with the help of signals from the measuring unit and same will be recorded. This also displays real-time data. The same data can be passed to PC on request.

Instrument Interface software (IIS) for PC: This software reads recorded data of IFIs located at different sites through serial port and the same will be stored in PC database. This data will be displayed in the form of graphs and spreadsheets. This software also having the facility of setting user settings like date, time and location in IPRU.

Specifications

Transducer:
· Full Scale measuring range: 0 to 50 mtrs
· Measuring accuracy: + 1cm
· Resolution: 0.25 mV/cm
· Input resistance(sensor) range: 0-10Kohms
· Output range: 0 to 5V
· Accuracy: + 0.5cm

Processing Card:
· Processor: Intel 87C51 microcontroller
· Frequency: 12 MHz
· Inputs:
Analog: Range 0-5V
Resolution: 8bit
    No of channels: 6
Digital: 2 no inputs for Contact sensing
· Outputs: 2 no of digital outputs to motor driver
· 8 no of TTL digital outputs for fault indication
· 64 K flash memory
· 256 bytes RAM
· 4 digit digital display
· One RS232C serial port to interface PC

Power Supply Board: 
· Output : +5V, + 12V DC
· VA rating: 150VA(approx)
· Input: 230 V + 10%, 50Hz
· Battery backup: 7 AMPH

Environmental Specifications:
Temperature range: 0 to 50oC
Project outlay: Rs. 4.0 Lakh
Funding Agency: DST, Govt. of India
Status: Completed