Effectiveness of Alternative Lora base sensing prototype for landslide detection; Soil Moisture in

Tongonan Ormoc

NIKO B MAGALLANES

JHAY ROD GUARDADOS

A Capstone submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of

Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering (BSEE)

Eastern Visayas State University

Ormoc City, Leyte

December 2023
 Acknowledgement

The researchers would like to convey their heartfelt gratitude to the following individuals
for donating their time, support, knowledge, and assumptions to make this study project a
reality.

First of all our Almighty God, for the wisdom, guidance, good health, and strength He has
bestowed on the researchers in achieving this research project.

To our university, Eastern Visayas State University-Ormoc City Campus, for allowing the
researchers to gain information, skills, and understanding. Also, for providing the researchers
with access to informational sources as well as a network of professional support in order to
make this study effort a reality.

To our research adviser, Dr. Joel M. Capala, who provided his knowledge and competence
and for supervising the researchers in writing this thesis.

To the families, who have supported the researchers throughout this research project's
development with their love, encouragement, and financial support.
 CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

Background of the Study

Soil moisture is directly related to the amount of irrigation in agriculture and influences the
yield of crops. Accordingly, a soil moisture sensor is an important tool for measuring soil
moisture content. In this study, the previous research conducted in recent 2-3 decades on soil
moisture sensors was reviewed and the principles of commonly used soil moisture sensor and
their various applications were summarized. Furthermore, the advantages, disadvantages, and
influencing factors of various measurement methods employed were compared and analyzed.
The improvements were presented by several scholars have established the major applications
and performance levels of soil moisture sensors, thereby setting the course for future
development. These studies indicated that soil moisture sensors in the future should be
developed to achieve high-precision, low-cost, non-destructive, automated, and highly
integrated systems. Also, it was indicated that future studies should involve the development of
specialized sensors for different applications and scenarios. This review research aimed to
provide a certain reference for application departments and scientific researchers in the
process of selecting soil moisture sensor products and measuring soil moisture.

Rationale of the Study

In this research, we combine the early detection of landslides signs to propose a simple
and low-cost prototype design for monitoring and detecting landslide potentials. We adopt
sensor system which detects based on soil movement and soil moisture. Several studies have
produced electronic instrument designs that can observe and detect signs of landslides
using various methods. This landslide detection uses an alternative LoRa-based sensing
prototype for landslide detection.
Statement of the Problem

General question
* How effective is the prototype base on landslide detection?
Specific questions
* What is the pretest performance of the prototype (not yet buried)
* What is the post-test performance of the prototype (already buried)
* What is the significant difference of the pretest and post-test performance of
the prototype.

Hypothesis
* There is no significant difference between the pretest and post-test
performance.

Null hypothesis
* There is a significant difference between the pretest and post-test
performance.

Objectives of the Study

This study aims to determine and answer the following:

A. To give awareness to the residents of barangay Tongonan if a landslide is
expected, occurring, or imminent.
B. To detect and understand environmental conditions, as well as deformation
caused by landslide.
C. If this prototype effective on landslide detection.
D. To determine the pretest performance of the prototype (LoRa).
E. To determine the post-test performance of the prototype (LoRa).
F. To determine the significant difference of the pretest and post-test
performance of the prototype (LoRa).
Theoretical and Conceptual Framework

This study anchored on the high rate of rainfall in Barangay Tongonan is the main trigger
factor in many cases of landslides in the area. However, each type of soils has unique
characteristics and behavior concerning the rainfall infiltration. Therefore, early warning system
of landslide will be more accurate by monitoring the changes of ground moisture condition. In
the Article Journal of Physics Conference Series, Volume 739 6th Asian Physics Symposium 19-
20 August 2015, the monitoring of ground water changes was designed by using soil moisture
sensor and simple microcontroller for data processing. The performance of soil moisture sensor
was calibrated using the gravimetric method. To determine the soil characteristic and behavior
with respect to water content that induce landslides, an experiment involving small-scale
landslide model was conducted. From these experiments, the electric resistance of the soil
increased as soil water content increases. The increase of soil water content led to the rise of
the pore pressure and soil weight which could cause soil vulnerability to the movement. In
addition, the various soil types were used to determine the responses of soils that induce the
slope failure. Experimental results showed that each type of soils has different volumetric water
content, soil matrix suction and shear strength of the slope. This condition influenced the slope
stability that trigger of landslide.

PROTOTYPE

TESTS

TREATMENT PRE- POST

TEST TEST

RESULT

OUTCOME AND
RECOMMENDATION
Scope and Limitations

The duration of this research project will be from August 2022 to December 2022.
This will be the time frame of the research proposal to gather or research data about the
“Alternative lora base sensing prototype for landslide detection; soil moisture in Brgy.
Tongonan, Ormoc City” The design of the project and instrumentation.

The proposed system uses two sensors, namely the HC-SRO4 ultrasonic sensor. To
detect the soil movement and the YL-69 soil moisture sensor to detect soil moisture levels.
Sensor data is processed using Arduino Uno. The soil movement and soil moisture data are sent
to the receiving node using the lora communication system so that residents around location
with potential for landslides can access data from the sensor nodes for free. This system is also
equipped with an IoT system by using Thingspeak as an IoT platform. Based on the design and
testing results, the lora system can work well at 250 meters in the channel with many buildings
and trees. This research also designs an application to access sensor data via the Thingspeak
Web server using an android device.

Significance of the Study

The high rate of rainfall is the main trigger factor in many cases of landslide. However,
each type of soils has unique characteristics and behavior concerning the rainfall. Therefore,
early warning system of landslide will be more accurate by monitoring the changes of ground
water condition.
In this study the monitoring ground water changes was designed by using lora-based
sensing prototype for landslide detection. The performance of lora-based sensor was calibrated
using the gravimetric method. To determine the soil characteristics and behavior with respect
to water content the induce landslide an experiment involving small scales landslide model was
conducted.
From this experiment, the electric resistance of the soil increased as soil water content
increases. The increased of soil water content led to the rise of the pore pressure and soil
weight which could cause soil vulnerability to the movement. In addition, the various soil types
were used to determine the responses of soils that induce the slope failure.

Definition of Terms

Soil moisture sensor - a measuring tool that measure or estimate the amount of water in the
soil.

Esp32 Lora32 - is an ESP32 based microcontroller board with a built-in SX1276 LoRa chip and a
0.96 inch OLED display

Prototype - a first, typical or preliminary model of something, especially a machine, from which
other forms are developed or copied

Landslide - the sliding down of a mass of earth or rock from a mountain or cliff.

Infiltration - permeation of a liquid into something by filtration.

Microcontroller - is a compact integrated circuit designed to govern a specific operation in an

embedded system.

Gravimetric method - a method of quantitative chemical analysis in which the constituent

sought is converted into a substance (of known composition) that can be separated from the
sample and weighed.

Low-cost - relatively inexpensive; cheap.

Integrated - integrated; integrating. transitive verb. : to form, coordinate, or blend into a

functioning or unified whole : unite. : to incorporate into a larger unit. : to unite with something
else

Detection - the action or process of identifying the presence of something concealed.

Soil Matric Suction - is the free energy change in a unit volume of water when isothermally
transferred from the soil water state to the free water state.
Instrumentation - is a collective term for measuring instruments that are used for indicating,
measuring and recording physical quantities. The term has its origins in the art and science of
scientific instrument-making.

CHAPTER II
Review of Related Literature

Landslide is one of the geological disasters which have been affecting the lives of
people significantly. Every year, landslide takes away a lot of lives and causes sincere
damage to property and the people

According to Aggarwal, S. et al.(2018) an innovative and economical system of

landslide monitoring which would notify the concerned users. We have implemented
real-time landslide detection and within 5-8 seconds, information regarding the incident
reached the stakeholders of the mobile application. In future, we propose to further
improve the method of landslide detection by implementing deep learning to detect such
anomalies.

Landslide prone areas are the most affected areas that monitoring is a must,
especially powerplants.

According to Pratomo, A. et al.(2020) This proposed architecture works in

resource-constrainedareas such as in the countryside, in the mountain villages, or
even in the city with many resources. This architecture can also build in to
monitor such dangerous areas without depending on electricity from powerplant
and make the definition of IoT wider in implementation. The LoRaWAN that makes the
communication between nodes and gateway happen paly a big part in the
communication part in this design, so that even if the no-internet area can become part
of the IoT system. The solar energy plan also givesmany optionsfor the location of
sensors aslong as the area is exposed to sunlight. IoT platform can be used for
faster development because it can read all data sent from the gateway and
provide API for many applicationson the users' side.

Taqwa, A. et al.(2021) The landslide detection system in this research has been
able to work well in identifying landslide potential status according to predetermined
criteria, using LoRa and IoT based communication system. Data packets sent by
sensor nodes can be completely received at a distance of 250 meters with many
obstructive objects such as buildings and trees. This range can be increased by
adjusting the LoRa physical layer, such as coding rate, spreading factor and
bandwidth. An Android-based application has also been running well to get sensor data
from the Thingspeak web server.

Bagwari, S. et al.(2021) The confluence of a rapidly increasing global

population and rising extreme climate as a result of recent climate change indicates
a significant increase in the risk of landslides in the near future. Deformation of the
landslide can be very slow (few mm per year) and sometimes even suddenly very
fast. This study reveals the types of techniques available to monitor landslides
and shows the ways to implement the landslide monitoring systems according to
cost-effectiveness. The precise result can be achieved by the incorporation of both
techniques i.e. remote sensing and ground-based monitoring but in such way cost of
the system will be increased significantly. This paper shows the approach of
different landslide monitoring systems implemented through sensors and a robust
wireless network. We found that for small area landslide monitoring can be
implemented through smart sensors and wireless networks and make a low cost-
effective device for mankind. One of the challenges facing sensor network
deployment is to minimize energy consumption in sensor nodes via the use of
appropriate energy-saving architecture or algorithms. Furthermore, using embedded-
based machine learning edge processing, major probability can investigate ways to
extend the network or battery lifetime. Another key challenge of the landslide
monitoring system is to make it more collaborative and flexible. The use of
enabling technologies standalone makes a lower impact comparison to working
together makes a high impact. Moreover, some abrupt changes are also recorded
in early warning systems using tilt sensors due to animal or human interference.
Thus the deployment of the system should be monitored by authorities to reduce
the chances of false alarm. In this paper, a general probable architecture also
proposed shows the low latency result using edge, fog, and IoT layer. Eventually,
appropriate connectivity, a prolonged deployment of real-time sensor networks, a
computer vision node, the integration of deep learning and machine learning, and
power conversion are among the key recommendations included and discussed in
this study to ensure proper implementation.

Ragnoli, M. et al.(2022) a standalone rockfall and landslide monitoring system, with

enhanced environmental monitoring capabilities, was presented, covering the hardware,
firmware, and software design of a remote monitoring system, implementing it on low
cost hardware and giving a complete view of a real scenario installation. For each
element, the following parameters have been monitored: axial accelerations,
temperature, barometric pressure, altitude, relative humidity, gas resistance for air AQI,
and battery level. The system is composed of sensor nodes which communicate with
gateways in star topology through the LoRa wireless modulation technique, forming a
wireless sensor network structure.
Reference

Aggarwal, S. et al.(2018) 'Landslide Monitoring System Implementing IOT Using Video

Camera,'
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/328961490_Landslide_Monitoring_System_Im
plementing_IOT_Using_Video_Camera

Protamo, A. et al.(2020) "Lora Technologies to Enable Landslide Disaster Prone Areas

Monitoring" https://proceeding.researchsynergypress.com/index.php/ess/article/view/
131/118

Taqwa, A. et al.(2021) "Prototype Design of Landslide Early Detection System Using

LoRa and IoT"
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/353304890_Prototype_Design_of_Landslide_
Early_Detection_System_Using_LoRa_and_IoT

Bagwari, S. et al.(2021) "Low-Cost Sensor-Based and LoRaWAN Opportunities for

Landslide Monitoring Systems on IoT Platform A Review"
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/357291387_Low-Cost_Sensor-
Based_and_LoRaWAN_Opportunities_for_Landslide_Monitoring_Systems_on_IoT_Plat
form_A_Review

Ragnoli, M. et al.(2022) "Lora based Wireless Sensors Network for Landslide

Monitoring" https://www.mdpi.com/2079-9268/12/3/47/htm