HR: 08:35h
AN: H51N-03    [Abstracts]
TI: SoilNet - A Zigbee based soil moisture sensor network
AU: * Bogena, H R
EM: h.bogena@fz-juelich.de
AF: Agrosphere Institute, Forschungszentrum Juelich, Leo Brandt Str., Juelich, NRW 52425, Germany
AU: Weuthen, A
EM: a.weuthen@fz-juelich.de
AF: Agrosphere Institute, Forschungszentrum Juelich, Leo Brandt Str., Juelich, NRW 52425, Germany
AU: Rosenbaum, U
EM: u.rosenbaum@fz-juelich.de
AF: Agrosphere Institute, Forschungszentrum Juelich, Leo Brandt Str., Juelich, NRW 52425, Germany
AU: Huisman, J A
EM: s.huisman@fz-juelich.de
AF: Agrosphere Institute, Forschungszentrum Juelich, Leo Brandt Str., Juelich, NRW 52425, Germany
AU: Vereecken, H
EM: h.vereecken@fz-juelich.de
AF: Agrosphere Institute, Forschungszentrum Juelich, Leo Brandt Str., Juelich, NRW 52425, Germany
AB: Soil moisture plays a key role in partitioning water and energy fluxes, in providing moisture to the atmosphere for precipitation, and controlling the pattern of groundwater recharge. Large-scale soil moisture variability is driven by variation of precipitation and radiation in space and time. At local scales, land cover, soil conditions, and topography act to redistribute soil moisture. Despite the importance of soil moisture, it is not yet measured in an operational way, e.g. for a better prediction of hydrological and surface energy fluxes (e.g. runoff, latent heat) at larger scales and in the framework of the development of early warning systems (e.g. flood forecasting) and the management of irrigation systems. The SoilNet project aims to develop a sensor network for the near real-time monitoring of soil moisture changes at high spatial and temporal resolution on the basis of the new low-cost ZigBee radio network that operates on top of the IEEE 802.15.4 standard. The sensor network consists of soil moisture sensors attached to end devices by cables, router devices and a coordinator device. The end devices are buried in the soil and linked wirelessly with nearby aboveground router devices. This ZigBee wireless sensor network design considers channel errors, delays, packet losses, and power and topology constraints. In order to conserve battery power, a reactive routing protocol is used that determines a new route only when it is required. The sensor network is also able to react to external influences, e.g. such as rainfall occurrences. The SoilNet communicator, routing and end devices have been developed by the Forschungszentrum Juelich and will be marketed through external companies. We will present first results of experiments to verify network stability and the accuracy of the soil moisture sensors. Simultaneously, we have developed a data management and visualisation system. We tested the wireless network on a 100 by 100 meter forest plot equipped with 25 end devices each consisting of 6 vertically arranged soil moisture sensors. The next step will be the instrumentation of two small catchments (~30 ha) with a 30 m spacing of the end devices.
UR: http://www.fz- juelich.de/icg/icg-4/index.php?index=739
DE: 1804 Catchment
DE: 1848 Monitoring networks
DE: 1866 Soil moisture
DE: 1880 Water management (6334)
DE: 1895 Instruments and techniques: monitoring
SC: Hydrology [H]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting