Jirapon Sunkpho and Chaiwat Ootamakorn

pp. 227 - 235

Abstract

Flooding is one of the major disasters occurring in various parts of the world. The system for real-time monitoring of
water conditions: water level; flow; and precipitation level, was developed to be employed in monitoring flood in Nakhon Si
Thammarat, a southern province in Thailand. The two main objectives of the developed system is to serve 1) as information
channel for flooding between the involved authorities and experts to enhance their responsibilities and collaboration and
2) as a web based information source for the public, responding to their need for information on water condition and flooding.
The developed system is composed of three major components: sensor network, processing/transmission unit, and database/
application server. These real-time data of water condition can be monitored remotely by utilizing wireless sensors network
that utilizes the mobile General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) communication in order to transmit measured data to the
application server. We implemented a so-called VirtualCOM, a middleware that enables application server to communicate
with the remote sensors connected to a GPRS data unit (GDU). With VirtualCOM, a GDU behaves as if it is a cable directly
connected the remote sensors to the application server. The application server is a web-based system implemented using
PHP and JAVA as the web application and MySQL as its relational database. Users can view real-time water condition
as well as the forecasting of the water condition directly from the web via web browser or via WAP. The developed system
has demonstrated the applicability of today’s sensors in wirelessly monitor real-time water conditions.