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Public safety/
CommunityThe people who design, build and run observation in this industry: engineers, operators, researchers and the communities the systems serve.
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Public safety · Community
Warning time, gained at the sensor
Observing networks, communications and data for emergency management: hydromet and fire-weather stations, camera towers with inference at the edge, deployable cells for incident command, and the integration that hands a trigger to the alerting authority, which keeps every decision. Needs: rainfall, river level and soil moisture, fire weather, smoke and ignition, ground movement and seismic activity, communications at the incident base and reporting uptime and data latency.
Community
Street flood observatory
Ultrasonic depth sensors on poles report street-level water depth as open data and alerts. Built with cities, emergency management agencies and universities, and open to participation. Volunteers and local partners install, host and read stations alongside our crews; their data carries the same metadata and quality flags as every other source.
Community
Low-cost stream gauge network
Radar or pressure level sensors with low-power radio and solar power, as a cheaper tier beside a national gauge network. Built with provinces and states, watershed boards, and open to participation. Volunteers and local partners install, host and read stations alongside our crews; their data carries the same metadata and quality flags as every other source.
What must be measured
Public safety: what must be measured
Rainfall, river level and soil moisture, fire weather, smoke and ignition, ground movement and seismic activity, communications at the incident base and reporting uptime and data latency. Each is measured by instruments sited to recognised practice, read by a base node that stamps, checks and signs every value.
How it works
From instrument to record, in one chain
An instrument reads; the base node checks the value, stamps time and place, signs it and sends it over the link the site has: cellular, LoRaWAN, private 5G or satellite. The edge verifies the signature before admitting it, and the core catalogues it with its metadata, quality flag and licence.
Trust
Every node proves what it is
A node joins only after its hardware root of trust answers an attestation challenge. Keys stay in secure hardware, software arrives signed, and every reading carries a signature, so its origin can be checked by anyone downstream without asking us.
Time and place
Every reading carries when and where
Readings are stamped against a disciplined clock, from satellite time or a PTP grandmaster, together with the station position and its siting record. When time or position is degraded, the record says so instead of hiding it, and every analyst downstream sees the same warning.
How it scales
One base unit, repeated
A programme starts with one base node and the instruments it reads. A station adds power and radio, a site adds a relay, a fleet repeats the proven site across many places, and a network federates fleets through edge and core. Capacity grows by adding units, never by replacing what works.
Updates
Updates in rings, with rollback
Software and configuration reach the fleet in rings: a canary site first, then a few, then all, each ring gated on health and data completeness. A failed gate stops the wave and returns each node to its last good release, without a site visit.
Operations
Every node watched, every incident closed
The operations console shows every node with its state, its plan and its evidence. Alerts arrive with their data and a runbook; acknowledging one opens a work order, and an incident closes only when the cause is recorded and the fix verified.
Failure and recovery
When a node fails, the fleet knows first
When a node goes silent or a sensor drifts, the node buffers its data, fails over to a second link where one exists, and the alert carries the evidence a responder needs. Nothing is lost and nothing is counted twice.
What you get
Hydrometeorological and flood observing networks
Stream gauges, rain gauges, weather radar and automatic weather stations built to WMO practice, reporting through WIS 2.0 where the agency requires it. Delivered as hardware + software, managed service and build-operate-transfer, for national meteorological and hydrological services, river-basin agencies, utilities.
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Plan a public safety deployment
Tell us the sites, the measurements and the people who will use them. We reply with a design and a scope for public safety. An engineer replies with a survey proposal and a scope, and the plan grows from one site to the network you need, at your pace.
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01Why a community
Observation is built by many hands.
Engineers, operators, researchers and residents each see a part of the system. The community puts the parts in one place.
01
Join
One account for every community, every platform and the NXS Observatory app.Create account →
02
Contribute
Methods, templates, field notes and data, reviewed in the open and credited to the people who made them.What is open →
03
Build together
Groups form around use cases, regions and technologies, proposed by members.Use cases →
02Code of conduct
One standard for every space we host.
- RespectDisagree with ideas, never with people. No harassment, in any form.
- EvidenceClaims carry their source. Measurements carry their method.
- CreditWork is credited to the people who did it, under the licence they chose.
- SafetyNo instructions that put people, sites or networks at risk.
- PrivacyNo one’s personal data is posted without their consent.
- AuthorityOfficial warnings and decisions stay with the bodies that hold them.
The line we hold
Warnings, alerts and official acts stay with the competent authority. We supply the observing systems, the data and the evidence behind them.
Bring us the site.
Survey, design, deployment and operation for public safety. The form names who receives your details.
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