Specifications

A Remote Automated Water Quality Stream Gauging System Design 21

7. CONCLUSION

All installations continue to provide the most detailed water quality data of any stream

monitoring sites in the Burdekin catchment.

The ability to collect water quality data and samples over entire hydrographs has facilitated

improved estimations of contaminant loads exported from waterways and with a quantifiable

level of uncertainty (Bartley et al 2007, Post et al 2006 and Brodie et al 2005).

This has also provided a platform to calibrate and validate a variety of catchment models

such as Sednet, Lisem and Annex.

The standardisation of stream gauge design has provided significant improvements over

original ad-hoc installations.

These include:

 The ability to prefabricate components, transport them to the installation site and bolt

them together. This reduces installation time and creates a lower risk to staff safety.

 Standardised components and component wiring across all sites means that one set

literature is applicable for all sites. Staff training is reduced as they are only required

to become familiar with one system (eg if a site has a specific sensor, it will always be

connected to the same port on a logger).

 Standardised program for all systems allows all systems operate in the same way

and with only a few variables need to be edited for system setup.

 The sample procedure is more capable of collecting samples over an entire

hydrograph through the use of dynamic window resizing. It is also less affected by

fluctuations around event thresholds.

 Sample tracking is much improved with the use of site specific identifiers for samples

the introduction of detailed event logging (eg event counters, reset switch logging).

It is possible to further enhance these systems with the addition of additional or upgraded

components. This would require some deviation from the standard system both physically

and programmatically.

Examples of system enhancements include:

 a refrigerated auto sampler and associated power system

 improved velocity probes (such as Sontek Argonaught SW)

 a digital camera

 an event-based dial out alert from stations.

The CR10x logger on which this system is based has been superseded by the CR1000

which has a different operating system and programming language. The system will operate

with these loggers although existing program code would need to be rewritten.