Proposta de solução baseada em redes de sensores sem fio para o monitoramento remoto periódico dos parâmetros físico-químicos da água ao longo de uma bacia hidrográfica

Abstract

Water resources have been impacted in recent times due to several factors, especially by population growth and industrial expansion. These impacts lead to the degradation of water resources and, consequently, there is a decrease in health and quality of life of urban citizens. According to the NationalWater Resources Policy (NWRP), management of water resources is distributed in watersheds based on Water Resources Plans. Such plans aim to support and guide NWRP’s implementation, containing a minimal content that includes goals related to water quality. Taken the information on the water quality as essential for the correct diagnosis and efficient management of water resources, an effective monitoring of physical-chemical parameters of water along a river basin is fundamental. In this context, systems based on Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) appears as a potential solution to perform remote periodic monitoring of these water parameters at points of interest. However, for the solution to be suitable, scalable and cost-effective, its planning should take into account application singularities and also the characteristics of the scenario. From these premises, this work presents a solution both for the planning and implementation of a WSN focusing on the choice of elements and their positioning. The solution presented consists of an innovative planning method of a WSN adjusted to monitor the characteristics of a river basin, as well as the sensor nodes issues regarding to the adaptation process needed for the coupling of sensing elements with some special electrical characteristics. The preliminary experimental evaluation of the solution, conducted using GIS software, is presented in details, including relevant results as it was able to identify installation points for the interconnection elements with a great potential of successful operation, which will be able to significantly reduce the costs of in loco surveys. More precisely, the evaluation methodology produced relevant results, particularly regarding to the optimization of the final solution, which was able to minimize the amount of network elements and the structures in terms of quantity and elevation of the antennas. Finally, it was possible to present results on the integration of a resistive analog sensor to the commercial sensor node, chosen as a proof of concept to evaluate the feasibility and coupling difficulty of a generic sensor element to the sensor node manufactured by Digi.