International Conference on Communication and Information Processing

\ (ICCIP-2019)
Available on: Elsevier-SSRN

Real Time Rainfall Monitoring and Flood Control System using

Wireless Sensor Network
Dr. K.C. Nalavadea Prof. D.S.Shingateb Prof. P.C.Patilc
a
Professor, Sandip Institute of Engineering and Management, Nashik
b
Assistant Professor, Sandip Institute of Engineering and Management, Nashik
c
Assistant Professor, Sandip Institute of Engineering and Management, Nashik

Abstract

Heavy rainfall and floods are natural disasters occurring in unexpected magnitudes and frequencies can cause loss of lives,
livelihoods and infrastructure in various parts of world. Early warning is important for saving lives and property and for
providing information to facilitate evacuation from floodplains in particular. By giving sufficient advance notice in a clear
and informative manner, the damage from disasters can be mitigated considerably. The role of the Rainfall Monitoring
and Flood Control System (RMFC) based on WSN is to continuously monitor, detect and report the environment’s status
to a control unit using relative moisture, temperature, water level and amount of rain as flood indicators, whose values are
gathered by sensors in the area of field. The Rainfall Monitoring and Flood Control System monitors the development of
flood and send alert messages to the occupant of such zones for necessary action. The system automatically links public
data to keep up-to-date disaster information content. The purpose of flood control system is to use modern technologies
and give recommendation about impending flooding so that people can act to minimize the flood’s negative impacts. It
covers predicting rainfall levels and the likely impacts of a flood, designing and disseminating warning messages, means
of reviewing the system’s effectiveness following an event. It can be used by local government authorities before, during
and after emergencies. It is intended to help decision-makers to establish an effective overview of the situation and find
answers to their questions quickly reducing the loss of lives by facilitating timely evacuation.
Keywords- Rainfall, Wireless Sensor Network, Monitoring System, Flood Damage, IoT(Internet of Things)

© 2019 – Authors.

1. INTRODUCTION

Weather changes results in natural disasters like Tsunami, Flood, Drought, Storms etc all over the world.
Flood is one of the major disasters in some countries of the world including India. The reasons may be
climate change which causes high rate of rainfall, placing many cities at increased risk of flooding. In India
mostly flood occurs when high rate of rainfall takes place for a longer period of time in a given small region
and the drainage system could not cope with increased water volumes. In India recently (2018) severe floods
affected the south Indian state of Kerala, due to unusually high rainfall during the monsoon season.
According to the Kerala government, one-sixth of the total population of Kerala had been directly affected
by the floods and related incidents. Kerala faced heavy monsoon rainfall, which was about 75% more than
the usual rain fall resulting in filling all the dams to the full capacity. For the first time in the state’s history
35 out of 54 dams had been opened. The sudden release of water from the dams was one of the major reason
of devastating floods in Kerala.

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In the same way MUMBAI, the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra, being a low lying area, gets
flooded almost every year during rainy seasons and high tides. Being the financial capital of India the city
contributes huge losses to the nation’s economy, due to the closed downs during flooding. The 2017 Mumbai
flood occurred on 29 August 2017 following heavy rain on 29 August 2017 in Mumbai. Transport systems
were unavailable through parts of the city as trains and roadways were shut. Power was shut off from various
parts of the city to prevent electrocution. The government failed to respond quickly, leading to the crisis.
Climate change has led to huge fluctuations in the monsoon winds carrying the moisture from the Arabian
Sea, resulting in heavy rainfall over central India, lasting for two to three days.
Floods cause high economic losses to the country and many times recovering the flood affected area take
decades in developing countries like India. To effectively monitor and detect occurrence of flood in flood
prone areas, rainfall monitoring and flood detection systems should be deployed to measure and record the
required parameters. Input data from satellites for flood forecasting, especially in developing countries, come
after a long interval and may be quite insufficient. Therefore the need to have Wireless Sensor Networks
(WSNs) monitored data such as water level, temperature, rainfall level is essential in order to make a
reasonable decision on the action necessary to detect flood.
In this paper we propose a Rainfall monitoring and Flood Control system monitors the development of flood
and sends alert messages to the occupant of such zones for necessary action. The system automatically links
public data to keep up- to-date disaster information content. The purpose of flood control system is to use
modern technologies and give recommendation about impending flooding so that people can act to minimize
the flood’s negative impacts.

2. LITERATURE REVIEW

S. Yeon , J. Kang *, I. Lee [1] proposed sensor devices to detect river flooding in areas with a high risk
of flooding. If the device is deployed in danger area according to the classification criteria by the Storm and
Flood Damage Insurance Map and monitored in real time, human and material damage will be reduced by
detecting and responding to the flood early. For this purpose, the risk of these damages is calculated for each
region, and the storm and flood damage insurance map is created based on the risk. This map can provide
insight into the degree of risk to wind and flood, snow damage, as well as policies to prevent and prepare for
each type of natural disaster. In order to support decision-making by utilizing this insurance map, it is
necessary to use with Storm and Flood Damage Information contents.
There are two approaches are proposed by Ruan Yun, Vijay P. Singh [6], one is multiple duration limited
water level and second is dynamic limited water level. This paper also proposed a dynamic limited water
level for flood control build on conditional probabilities of large storms. The system provides a real world
application of internet of things and offer services like accurate level monitoring. The Flood Observatory
System will be easy to install and maintained if it is powered by solar cells. The use of solar energy will also
provide cheaper source of power to the entire system.
DIAO Yan Fang& WANG Ben De have analyzed the four uncertainties that is hydraulic, hydrological,
stage-storage uncertainty and time-delay uncertainty, and also their probability distributions. This proposed
model was estimate by Monte Carlo simulation, based on Latin hypercube sampling. The ‘‘Flood Risk
Analysis’’ group [9] developed complex, spatially distributed models. The flood disaster chain approach
allows the various numbers of simulations runs in a Monte Carlo framework and provides the support for a
probabilistic risk assessment. The proposed model is useful to integrated assessment of flood risk in flood
prone area. The risk analysis of a flood control system is presenting a flood detention structures are use in
second application copulas.

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Real Time Rainfall Monitoring and….. 3

The deployment of sensor networks on numerous applications areas such as transportation, logistics,
environmental and habitat monitoring, security and surveillance, industrial automation, military, precision
agriculture and healthcare, has been successfully performed. Wemer-Allen, G., Johnson, J., Ruize, M., Less,
J., and Welsh, Matt [11] used a WSN to monitor volcanic activities. Wirawam, S., Pratoma, I., and Mita,
Nagahisa [7] designed a WSN for environmental monitoring as a platform as well as the implementation of a
prototype system which could be beneficial to developing countries. Basha, Elizabeth, and Daniela Ru [8]
developed early warning flood detection system which was installed along a river in Hunduras.
Yuwat, C. and Kilaso, S [3] designed a disaster and alert system using WSN to send weather information
and disaster alerts by a Zigbee module. This weather information was analyzed using decision tree techniques
to announce the alerts. The system generates alerts for flood. For communication between sensors Zigbee is
used. Early warnings in disasters can save many lives and loss of property. Windarto, [5] proposed flood
early warning system using SMS and web to record rainfall and water level data and SMS on flood status to
the people in the prone area. The website can be accessed from anywhere from the world. The SMS and web
can be used for alert management

3. PROPOSED SYSTEM

The architecture of the proposed system has three modules. The three modules are sensor field,
command control centre and GSM modules. The wireless sensor node involves of an ARM 32 micro
controller, sensors and wireless transceiver. Sensing unit senses the flow of water, temperature, moisture,
flow and its level. The main hardware components are Arduno Uno, Temperature Sensor, Level Sensor, Flow
Sensor and Rainfall Sensor. A temperature sensor perceives the hotness and the oddness of the environment.
The recognizing of the temperature can be done with the straight contact or an indirect contact. Level sensors
are used for the measurement of the water level. The flow sensor is a device for observing the rate of water
flow. The rainfall sensor detects the amount and intensity of rain in the environment. A rain sensor or rain
switch is an exchanging gadget initiated by precipitation. The proposed system acts as an alert to people
when the water level increases from the normal capacity. Advanced sensors are used to identify the level of
water presented in dams and
The sensor nodes are connected to microcontroller and programmed accordingly to transmit information
using wireless systems. Each node will update its information in regular intervals. The WSN Ethernet
gateway module coordinates communication between distributed measurement nodes in the sensor field and
the host computer in the command control center. The design of a WSN involves of a set of nodes for sensing
and a base station that link with each other and collects confined data to make actual results about the
environment. The sensor field module consists of sensors for sensing and communicating parameters values
to the command control center. The sensors get values of the monitored parameters and send to the
communication medium through the gateway to the command control centre, where the data is collected,
processed and stored in the database.
Command control centre module consists of a display for showing information, database which holds
the phone numbers and the monitored parameters, a broadband modem to enable the sending of SMS. The
host computer is a manned node for monitoring the GUI and to raise / send alert SMS to the occupants of the
flood area. Mobile phone module represents the occupants of the flood prone region who will receive the
alert via the SMS. The entire procedure and operations can be depicted in a high level model block diagram
as shown in figure 3.1.

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Figure 1 Proposed System Architecture

4. CONCLUSION

The system provides a real world application of internet of things and offer services like accurate level
monitoring directly are indirectly benefited by the system Sensors are important elements in the Flood
Observatory System. Further studies on wireless sensor technology will be best to replace the current sensors.
Precise and accurate detection of water level will improve the data collection system for the monitoring
station. The flood alert information’s can be displayed on LED display boards for road users and for safety
reasons could be placed at strategic locations. Such information’s should be in real time and transmitted
wirelessly from the measured location. A possible means of power supply for the sensors and centralized
control unit is via solar cells. The Flood Observatory System will be easy to install and maintained if it is
powered by solar cells. The use of solar energy will also provide cheaper source of power to the entire
system. low lying area areas. The proposed system is fully automated device which is capable of operating
without human intervention at any time regardless of the location being installed.

References

[1] S. Yeon, J. Kang, I. Lee ,A Study on real-time Flood Monitoring System based on Sensors using Flood Damage Insurance Map,
The International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences, Volume XLII-3/W4,
2018 GeoInformation For Disaster Management (Gi4DM), 18–21 March 2018, Istanbul, Turkey.
[2] Seal, V., Raha, A., Maity, S., Mitra, S. K., Mukherjee, A. and Naskar,
M. K. “A Simple Flood Forecasting Scheme Using Wireless Sensor Networks”. International Journal of Ad hoc Sensor &
Ubiquitous Computing (IJASUC) Vol.3, No.1, pp. 45-60, 2012

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Real Time Rainfall Monitoring and….. 5

[3] Yuwat, C. and Kilaso, S. “ A Wireless Sensor Network for Weather and Disaster Alarm System” , Proceedings of International
Conference on Information and Electronics Engineering, IPCSIT Vol. 6, Singapore. Pp 1 – 5, 2011
[4] Nigeria Climate Review Bulletin 2010 by Nigeria Meteorological Agency, 33 Pope John Street, Abuja, Nigeria.
[5] Windarto, J.” Flood Early Warning System develop at Garang River Semarang using Information Technology base on SMS and
Web”. International Journal of Geomatics and Geosciences Vol. 1 No. 1, 2010.
[6] Ruan Yun, Vijay P. Singh ,2008, Multiple duration limited water level and dynamic limited water level for flood control, with
implications on water supply. Journal of Hydrology (2008) 354, 160– 170.
[7] Wirawam, S., Pratoma, I., and Mita, Nagahisa. ”Design of Low Cost Wireless Sensor Network-Based Environmental Monitoring
System for Developing Country”. Proceedings of APCC 2008.
[8] Basha, Elizabeth, and Daniela Rus. "Design of early warning flood detection systems for developing countries." Information and
Communication Technologies and Development, 2007. ICTD 2007.
International Conference on. IEEE, 2007
[9] HEIKO APEL, ANNEGRET H. THIEKEN, BRUNO MERZ and GU¨ NTER BLO¨ SCHL,2006, A Probabilistic Modelling
System for Assessing Flood Risks. VOL.12,ISSUE 10.
[10] Akyildiz, I. F., Pompili, D., & Melodia, T. ”Underwater acoustic sensor networks: research challenges”, Elsevier: Adhoc
Networks, no. 3, pp. 257–279, 2005
[11] Wemer-Allen, G., Johnson, J., Ruize, M., Less, J., and Welsh, Matt “Monitoring Volcanic Eruptions with a Wireless sensor
Network. Proceedings of 2nd European Workshop on Wireless Sensor Network, 2005

Dr. Kamini C. Nalavade (B.E(CSE), M.Tech(comp), Ph.D . (Computer

Engineering) having 15 + years of experience in teaching, research and
development. Completed PhD in Computer Engineering from VJTI, Mumbai.
Published various papers around 11+ renowned publication and have good
number of Google scholar citation 41 H index is 4 and I index is 1. Interested
area of domain is Network security. She is life time member of The Institute
of Engineering (IEI) India.

.
Dattatray S. Shingate is received Under-Graduate degree from Pune
University and Post Graduate degree (M. E.) from Pune University
Pune. Currently working as Assistant Professor in Computer
Engineering Department at Matoshri College of Engineering &
Research Centre, Nashik, MH, India. He is life time member of The
Institute of Engineering (IEI) India

Pramod Patil is received under-graduate degree from Pune University and

Post Graduate (M. E.) from BAMU University Aurangabad. Currently
working as Asst. Professor in Computer Engineering Department at
Matoshri College of Engineering & Research Centre, Nashik, MH, India.
He is life time member of The Institute of Engineering (IEI) India.

Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3419249