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ARS Home » Plains Area » El Reno, Oklahoma » Oklahoma and Central Plains Agricultural Research Center » Agroclimate and Hydraulics Research Unit » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #401780
Research Project: Development of a Monitoring Network, Engineering Tools, and Guidelines for the Design, Analysis, and Rehabilitation of Embankment Dams, Hydraulic Structures, and Channels

Location: Agroclimate and Hydraulics Research Unit

Title: Low-cost versus a commercially available scientific grade meteorological station for dam monitoring

Author
item Hunt, Sherry
item Shelton, Colton
item FUKA, DANIEL - Virginia Tech
item Wise, Jarrett
item BUSER, MICHAEL - US Department Of Agriculture (USDA)

Submitted to: Meeting Abstract
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 3/17/2023
Publication Date: 7/9/2023
Citation: Hunt, S., Shelton, C.K., Fuka, D., Wise, J.L., Buser, M.D. 2023. Low-cost versus a commercially available scientific grade meteorological station for dam monitoring. Meeting Abstract. ASABE International Meeting, July 9-12, 2023, Omaha, NE.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: USDA is the engineer of records of approximately one-third of the more than 90,000 dams on the National Dam Inventory. Of these dams, nearly 12,000 were constructed under the USDA Small Water Program Authority administered by the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). Approximately two-thirds of these dams have surpassed their planned service life. The dams provide benefits including flood control, rural and municipal water supplies, water for agricultural and energy production, healthy ecosystems, and recreation and tourism. End-users like dam operators, irrigation district managers, farmers and producers, agri-businesses, and tourism bureaus would benefit from real-time monitoring of these structures through the delivery of data and/or creation of decision support tools and models. However, instrumenting each dam could be costly given the shear number of them. Scientists with the USDA-ARS Agroclimate and Hydraulic Engineering Research Unit in Stillwater, OK in collaboration with universities collaborators and the USDA-NRCS are developing cloud-based technologies that ingests data from specialized sensors and instrumentation. The objective of this presentation will focus on the development of a low-cost meteorological station and how well it compares to a commercially available scientific grade station.