KELLER IN THE BUSH IOT WATERLEVEL PILOT PROJECT WITH A SURPRISING OUTCOME AT KOLOLO GAME RESERVE
Kololo Game Reserve is located near Vaalwater, Limpopo (South Africa), with several accommodations, a fi ne restaurant and a swimming pool. Kololo is part of Welgevonden Game Reserve (a Big Five game reserve*), with the specialty that the area itself does not accommodate the Big Five. Summarized, Kololo is a family friendly game reserve with its own access to the Big Five, i.e. the best of both worlds.
Kololo is located in a rural area and therefore self-sustaining regarding water and electricity. Although Kololo is connected to the electricity network, this network fails now and then so for backup purposes there is a diesel electricity generator standby.
The water from the well is pumped over a distance of 1 km into eight tanks of 5000 liters each. These tanks are called «Jojo’s» because of the name of the manufacturer (Jojo) and are located high on a hill. In fact the Jojo’s work as an accumulator. From the Jojo’s, the water is distributed by pipe downhill, assisted by gravity, to the lodges and the pool.
Measuring levels
Measuring the water level in both the well and the Jojo’s is important to get a good insight in the current level which is representative for stock of water over a certain period. Therefore in February 2020, KELLER installed a complete level measurement system in one of the Jojo’s, which is wirelessly readout via a LoRa network. All eight Jojo’s are connected to each other. Thus, the level in one Jojo is representative for the level in all Jojo’s.
KELLER has a wide variety of both analogue and digital level sensors. Optionally, beside level and temperature which are standard measured parameters, the digital level sensors can even measure conductivity. As the data is fi nally stored in a database of KELLER’s KOLIBRI Cloud, also historical data is available over time, which gives further insight in consumption, leakage etc.
Kololo’s water system
Kololo’s water system consists of 3 stages: A water well, eight accumulating tanks, and fi nally, distribution of the water through pipes and hoses to the lodges, the restaurant and the pool. Kololo’s main water source is a well at a depth of 100 m. To reach the well’s water, a borehole is drilled. Measuring the level in the well is important to predict the stock of water in the well, as stock is not infi nite.
How to measure water level with a pressure sensor?
Ever felt your ears hurt when diving in water? You feel the weight of the water column above you. The weight is a force, calucalated with the formula F = m x g, where m = mass and g = gravity. As pressure is force per area, we can measure the fl uid column with a pressure sensor.
Knowing the density of the fl uid, we can convert the pressure to a length (= fl uid column) and when we know the length, the area and the density of the fl uid, we can convert the measurement to a volume in litres.
Wireles LoRaWAN based system
Kololo is not the biggest game reserve but nevertheless a big area of 3000 Hectares (i.e. 4500 footbal pitches) and thus too big for wired sensors. This project asks for a wireless IoT* solution, but due to the fact that Kololo is located in a rural area there is hardly cellular coverage. 4G and NB-IoT (i.e. provided networks) are therefore not available. However, Kololo does have acess to the internet.
The tanks called Jojo‘s IET SEPTEMBER 2022
Pressure / water column conversion
* Big 5 stands for the fi ve most dangerous animals to hunt and comes from those day where hunting precious animals was seen from another perspective. The big 5 are the elephant, rhino, leopard, buffalo and of course the lion.
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