Florida utility deploys IoT-powered smart solutions to monitor lake levels.
With a four-month long rainy season, monitoring lake levels to prevent flooding the old way-manually-was time consuming and drained resources, but the City of Lakeland, Florida teamed up with Sensus to create a remote monitoring solution. Sensus, which provides IoT infrastructure and communications networks, used their FlexNet communications network and the IoT, both already in use in the city, to create remote water monitoring stations at two lakes using the Sensus® Smart Gateway sensor interface.
“Maintaining balanced water levels is critical to avoid flooding in residential areas and conserve enough water for the dry season,” said Laurie Smith, manager of the City of Lakeland’s Lakes and Stormwater Division. “Our technician has to drive back and forth between 11 lakes and make sure the levels don’t get too high. Our FlexNet system had all we needed to build a remote monitoring solution, allowing us to reap tremendous cost savings from not having to implement new infrastructure,” said Smith.
With the Smart Gateway and FlexNet, the city now collects water level data remotely and in real-time. This lets them immediately identify when a lake is in danger of flooding and open and close the installed flood control structures. This saves both time and operational costs.
A pilot program at two lakes was successful, and remote monitoring will eventually be deployed at at all 11 of the city’s lakes.
