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Hydropower and damsHydropower, from the catchment to the spillway.
A hydropower dam stores a river and must hold it safely through every flood. Its operator needs to know how the dam behaves, how much water is coming and what happens downstream when gates open. An observation network across the dam and its catchment reads deformation, seepage and pore pressure, rain, snow and river levels, and feeds operations, dam safety engineers and downstream warning.
Plan a deploymentHow it worksStation Builder- Industry
- Energy
- Measurements
- 5
- Sources cited
- 4
Energy · Hydropower and dams
A river held, a valley protected
A dam turns a river into a reservoir and a reservoir into power, and must stay safe through every flood. Its operators decide gate openings on forecasts, its engineers watch how it behaves, and the valley below depends on both. Observation ties the dam, the catchment and the river below into one picture.
What is measured
The dam, the reservoir and the sky
Piezometers and seepage weirs read the foundation; GNSS, plumblines and inclinometers follow deformation; strong-motion sensors record earthquakes. Gauges measure the reservoir, the tailrace and the river below, and catchment stations measure rain, snow and temperature that will become tomorrow’s inflow.
- Instruments
- Piezometers · Seepage weirs · GNSS · Strong motion · Level gauges · Catchment weather
The base node
Endpoints in the galleries, nodes on the crest
Battery endpoints in the galleries read piezometers and weirs, including sound instruments already installed. Solar nodes on the crest read GNSS and strong-motion sensors. Every value is signed with its instrument’s identity and kept locally until the plant’s record confirms delivery.
Radio and links
Links that outlast the flood
LoRaWAN gateways on high ground hear endpoints across the dam and the catchment. Microwave joins valleys to the plant without cables that a flood could cut, satellite serves remote stations, and fibre runs inside the dam and the powerhouse. Each path is chosen from the survey of the valleys.
- Radio
- LoRaWAN · Microwave · Satellite · Fibre
How it works
From a rain gauge to a gate decision
Rain in the catchment is read by a station’s endpoint, sent over LoRaWAN and microwave to the plant’s edge node, signed and combined with other stations into an inflow estimate. Operators see the estimate beside reservoir level and decide gate operations with the evidence in front of them.
From order to operation · Order
Scope the dam and its river
The scope reads the dam’s surveillance programme, emergency action plan and operating rules, and the catchment’s existing gauges. Nexus Observatory Inc. returns a dam instrumentation and catchment network plan, the radio design, the integration with operations and a price per dam and per catchment.
Plan a deploymentFrom order to operation · Survey
Survey the dam and the catchment
Crews survey the dam, galleries, abutments and toe with the dam safety engineer, then the catchment with hydrologists. They check existing instruments, find gauge sections and weather station sites, measure radio paths across the valleys and record each position on the owner’s drawings and maps.
From order to operation · Permits
Dam safety and river approvals
Instrument changes on the dam are approved by the dam safety engineer and, where required, the regulator. River gauges and catchment stations need landowner consent and, often, water authority approval; downstream warning arrangements are agreed with emergency services. Every approval is kept with the instrument or station it covers.
From order to operation · Build
Build for galleries and storms
Gallery endpoints, crest stations, gauges, catchment weather stations, gateways and microwave links are built and tested, each enrolled with its identity and the instrument or place it serves, so every reading arrives tied to its location in the dam or the river.
Open the Station BuilderFrom order to operation · Install
Install around operations
Installation is coordinated with plant operations and river levels. Links and gateways go in first, then gallery and crest instruments, reservoir and river gauges and catchment stations. Existing sound instruments are connected to new endpoints, and every position is surveyed and photographed.
From order to operation · Commission
Commission readings and alerts
Each node proves its identity, then readings are compared with manual readings, staff gauges and survey. Alert levels from the surveillance programme and the emergency action plan are entered and tested end to end, including messages to downstream contacts. Results are signed into the dam’s record.
From order to operation · Operate
Operate on evidence
Operators see inflow, reservoir level and downstream levels with forecasts; dam safety engineers see instrument trends against alert levels; downstream contacts receive the notices agreed with them. Every reading, alert and decision is logged for the surveillance report. Forecast inflows are shown with their uncertainty, so decisions account for it.
From order to operation · Maintain
Keep the dam’s record unbroken
Instruments are serviced and recalibrated, gauges are checked after floods, catchment stations are cleared of snow and debris and software moves in rings. The dam’s record stays unbroken from year to year, as surveillance programmes expect. Each flood is reviewed afterwards against what the network recorded.
Book field servicesData products
One river, many decisions
Dam safety engineers see instrument trends against alert levels; operators see inflow and reservoir forecasts; hydrologists and agencies receive catchment series; emergency services and downstream communities receive the notices agreed with them. Every product comes from the same signed readings.
See the data productsEvidence
A surveillance record for the regulator
Instrument histories, calibrations, alert levels and every change to them, every alert and every gate decision are signed and kept. Monitoring follows the dam’s surveillance programme and recognised dam safety guidance, and river data follows hydrological practice, so reviewers can verify each conclusion.
- Drawn against
- Federal Guidelines for Dam Safety · ICOLD bulletins · WMO-No. 168
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.
Talk to salesNext step
Plan hydropower and dams with us
Tell us the site, the measurements and the rules it answers to. We reply with a survey proposal, a design and a scope for hydropower and dams. 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.
Plan a deploymentOpen the Station BuilderOpen the Studio
01The place and its hazards
Where it runs, and what can go wrong.
Operating contextHydropower ranges from run-of-river plants to large storage dams and pumped storage. Dams are surveilled with instruments, inspections and analysis under dam safety programmes, and reservoirs are operated on forecasts of inflow from rain and snowmelt. Gate operations change river levels downstream quickly, so communication with downstream communities and authorities is part of operating safely.
Hazards
- Dam or foundation deformation, seepage and internal erosion
- Extreme inflows and overtopping
- Rapid changes in downstream river levels from gate operations
- Landslides into the reservoir
- Earthquake loading
02What must be measured
What, where, how often, and under which rules.
Each measurement names where it is taken, how often, and the public standard or regulation behind it. Numbers in the sources column open the cited source below.
| Measurement | Where | Cadence | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dam deformation | GNSS points, plumblines, inclinometers and survey targets on the dam and abutments | Continuous at stations; scheduled surveys | 12 |
| Pore pressure, uplift and seepage | Piezometers in the foundation and seepage weirs at the toe | Continuous | 12 |
| Reservoir and river levels | Reservoir, tailrace and downstream gauging points | Continuous | 3 |
| Rain, snow and temperature in the catchment | Stations across the catchment, sited to recognised practice | Continuous | 43 |
| Ground motion | Strong-motion sensors on the dam and in the foundation | Continuous, recorded on trigger | 2 |
03The observation stack
From one base unit to a network.
The same blocks at every scale: instruments and a base node, a site with its radio, a fleet run as one, and a network federated on the open protocol.
- 01
Base unit
A dam station: piezometers and seepage weirs read by battery endpoints, or GNSS and strong-motion sensors read by a solar node that signs and keeps every value.
Build a station → - 02
Site
A dam and its catchment: dam safety instruments, reservoir and river gauges, catchment weather stations and gateways, joined by microwave to the plant.
Plan a site → - 03
Fleet
Every dam and plant on a river system run as one fleet, with one dam safety and one hydrological record.
Managed offers → - 04
Network
Owners, river basin agencies, dam safety regulators and emergency services share a federated record of levels and alerts.
The open protocol →
- 01Water level gauge
- 02GNSS geodetic station
- 03Seismometer / strong-motion accelerometer
- 04Compact weather station
- 05LPWAN endpoint
- 06LoRaWAN gateway
- 07Edge node (Wedge)
- 08Point-to-point microwave
- 09Solar array
- 10Pole
Radio and links
LoRaWAN
Piezometers, weirs and catchment gauges spread over a dam and its valleys report from battery endpoints through gateways on high ground.
Radio and links
Point-to-point microwave
Joins catchment and dam gateways to the plant across valleys where cable would be cut by the floods it must report.
Radio and links
Satellite
Remote catchment stations report over satellite, a path that does not depend on local infrastructure during a flood.
Radio and links
Fibre
Inside the dam and the powerhouse, fibre carries instrument data to the control room.
Edge computeAn edge node at the plant checks every instrument against its alert levels, combines catchment readings into inflow estimates for operations and keeps the record locally when outside links fail.
PowerDam and catchment stations run on solar and batteries sized for the season of heaviest storms, so the record continues through the floods it is there to see.
04How it works
From the instrument to the product.
One observation’s path, tier by tier, with the interface on every link and a bill of materials below; then how the one node grows to a site, a fleet and federated networks.
Hydropower and dams: data path
– of 08
01 Instruments Measurement with sensor identity andcalibration 02 Field radio 03 Gateway 04 Node – Wrap in an observation envelope with timequality– Measure quality and uncertainty, attachquality flags– Buffer locally (store-and-forward when thelink drops) 05 Backhaul Commit with transactional outbox andpublish, delivered at least once 06 Site Consumer inbox deduplicates and applieseach record once into governed data 07 Data store Governed product through API, map orexport, correction-aware 08 Products OGC SensorThings APIWaterML 2.0OPC UA (IEC 62541) 09 Power and structure Supplies 12 V DC, 24 V DC, 48 V DC to thefield equipment Vibrating-wire piezometersand plumblines Not in the reference kit 01 Water level gauge SDI-12 · RS-485 · Ethernet 02 Compact weather station SDI-12 · RS-485 · Ethernet 03 GNSS geodetic station Ethernet · GNSS antenna ·1PPS/10 MHz 04 Seismometer /strong-motionaccelerometer SDI-12 · RS-485 · Ethernet 05 LPWAN endpoint Analogue I/O · SDI-12 · RS-485 06 LoRaWAN gateway Ethernet · RF · GNSS antenna 07 Edge node (Wedge) Ethernet · Fibre · USB · RS-485 ·BMC 08 Point-to-point microwave Ethernet · Fibre Site MQTT 5 with Sparkplug B Governed data store Versioned, correction-aware Dam instrument trends against alertlevels Inflow estimates and reservoirforecasts Downstream level notices Catchment rain, snow and riverrecords 09 Solar array RS-485 10 Pole Analogue I/O SDI-12 SDI-12 LoRaWAN Ethernet Ethernet Ethernet Ethernet Microwave link| Item | Equipment | Data ports | Protocols | Power in |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Water level gaugeRadar, pressure or float gauge for river, lake, reservoir or tide level. | SDI-12RS-485Ethernet | SDI-12, Modbus, MQTT 5, OGC SensorThings API | 12 V DC |
| 02 | Compact weather stationAll-in-one or compact station for temperature, humidity, pressure, wind and rain at a site. | SDI-12RS-485Ethernet | SDI-12, Modbus, MQTT 5, OGC SensorThings API | 12 V DC |
| 03 | GNSS geodetic stationContinuously operating GNSS station on a stable monument for geodesy, deformation and atmospheric water vapour. | EthernetGNSS antenna1PPS/10 MHz | NTP with NTS | 12 V DC |
| 04 | Seismometer / strong-motion accelerometerShort-period seismometer or strong-motion accelerometer for local earthquake and structural shaking. | SDI-12RS-485Ethernet | SEED / miniSEED streams, MQTT 5, OGC SensorThings API | 12 V DC |
| 05 | LPWAN endpointBattery-powered endpoint on LoRaWAN, NB-IoT or LTE-M that carries one or more sensors. | Analogue I/OSDI-12RS-485 | LoRaWAN, OMA LwM2M, CoAP | Internal battery, Energy harvesting |
| 06 | LoRaWAN gatewayMulti-channel LoRaWAN gateway that forwards uplinks to a network server and schedules downlinks within duty limits. | EthernetRFGNSS antenna | LoRaWAN, MQTT 5 | PoE, 12 V DC |
| 07 | Edge node (Wedge)Rugged edge node that boots from signed media, attests itself and establishes a site cell from little or no infrastructure. | EthernetFibreUSBRS-485BMC | MQTT 5, DMTF Redfish, IEEE 1588 PTP, NTP with NTS, OPC UA | 12 V DC, 24 V DC, 48 V DC, AC mains |
| 08 | Point-to-point microwaveLicensed or licence-exempt point-to-point radio link between two sites with line-of-sight. | EthernetFibre | IEEE 1588 PTP | PoE, 48 V DC |
| 09 | Solar arrayPV modules with charge controller sized to the site’s load and climate. | RS-485 | Modbus | — |
| 10 | PoleUtility, street or dedicated pole with clamp positions. | — | — | — |
How it scales
01 Instruments Arbitrary qualified sensors and instruments whosemeasurements are ingested with calibration, units,geometry, time, custody and uncertainty. ×n 02 Node The minimum useful deployable unit: server, ruggedappliance, radio node, sensor gateway, satelliteterminal, AI, scientific, vehicle or virtual node. Node Node agent 03 Site The minimum independently operable localgovernance and failure domain: one or more nodesplus local network, identity, policy, evidence,storage, products and operator surfaces.SITE
Node Node Node ×n 04 Cluster An optional scale or specialisation domain forscheduling, shared storage, accelerators or datalocality.CLUSTER
×n 05 Fleet Coordinates plans, acknowledgements,convergence evidence, update campaigns andcorrection propagation across nodes and sites.FLEET
Fleet controller ×n 06 Federation An exchange of products, capabilities, events orwork across approved, independently administeredtrust domains, using explicit trust, policy,data-locality, version and correction contracts.TRUST DOMAIN
TRUST DOMAIN
TRUST DOMAIN
×n Verifier Applications Data in the field Telemetry Control Data upstream Control Data upstream Control Exchange Evidence Events Exchange- Data in the field
- MQTT 5 with Sparkplug B; connectors for LoRaWAN, OPC UA and instrument buses.
- Telemetry
- OpenTelemetry OTLP.
- Control
- TLS 1.3 with mutual authentication; protobuf messages over gRPC or HTTP/2.
- Data upstream
- At-least-once publication with repeat-safe keys over the control channel or NATS JetStream; QUIC MAY be used on lossy links.
- Evidence
- DSSE-signed in-toto statements; SLSA provenance; SCITT transparency receipts.
- Events
- Event envelopes mapped to CloudEvents 1.0; channels described in AsyncAPI 3.
- Exchange
- OpenAPI 3.1; the OGC API family; SensorThings; STAC; WIS 2.0.
05From order to operation
Every step, from the first call to a running site.
The same crew and the same record carry the work from scope to maintenance.
- 01 Order
Scope the dam and its river
The scope reads the dam’s surveillance programme, emergency action plan and operating rules, and the catchment’s existing gauges. Nexus Observatory Inc. returns a dam instrumentation and catchment network plan, the radio design, the integration with operations and a price per dam and per catchment. 1
- 02 Survey
Survey the dam and the catchment
Crews survey the dam, galleries, abutments and toe with the dam safety engineer, then the catchment with hydrologists. They check existing instruments, find gauge sections and weather station sites, measure radio paths across the valleys and record each position on the owner’s drawings and maps.
- 03 Permits
Dam safety and river approvals
Instrument changes on the dam are approved by the dam safety engineer and, where required, the regulator. River gauges and catchment stations need landowner consent and, often, water authority approval; downstream warning arrangements are agreed with emergency services. Every approval is kept with the instrument or station it covers.
- 04 Build
Build for galleries and storms
Gallery endpoints, crest stations, gauges, catchment weather stations, gateways and microwave links are built and tested, each enrolled with its identity and the instrument or place it serves, so every reading arrives tied to its location in the dam or the river.
- 05 Install
Install around operations
Installation is coordinated with plant operations and river levels. Links and gateways go in first, then gallery and crest instruments, reservoir and river gauges and catchment stations. Existing sound instruments are connected to new endpoints, and every position is surveyed and photographed.
- 06 Commission
Commission readings and alerts
Each node proves its identity, then readings are compared with manual readings, staff gauges and survey. Alert levels from the surveillance programme and the emergency action plan are entered and tested end to end, including messages to downstream contacts. Results are signed into the dam’s record.
- 07 Operate
Operate on evidence
Operators see inflow, reservoir level and downstream levels with forecasts; dam safety engineers see instrument trends against alert levels; downstream contacts receive the notices agreed with them. Every reading, alert and decision is logged for the surveillance report. Forecast inflows are shown with their uncertainty, so decisions account for it.
- 08 Maintain
Keep the dam’s record unbroken
Instruments are serviced and recalibrated, gauges are checked after floods, catchment stations are cleared of snow and debris and software moves in rings. The dam’s record stays unbroken from year to year, as surveillance programmes expect. Each flood is reviewed afterwards against what the network recorded.
06Data products and integration
What it delivers, to whom, and into which systems.
Data products
- Dam instrument trends against alert levelsDam safety engineers and regulators
- Inflow estimates and reservoir forecastsPlant operators and energy traders
- Downstream level noticesEmergency services and downstream communities
- Catchment rain, snow and river recordsHydrologists and river basin agencies
Integration
- Plant control and historianLevels and alerts move over OPC UA into the plant historian.
- Hydrological agenciesRiver and weather series are exchanged through OGC SensorThings and WaterML.
- Emergency action planAlerts follow the plan’s notification lists and are logged against it.
Exchanged through OGC SensorThings API, WaterML 2.0, OPC UA (IEC 62541).
07Questions buyers ask
Before you scope it.
Can existing dam instruments be connected?
Usually yes. Vibrating-wire and digital instruments are read by new endpoints where the instrument and its cable are sound.
Who sets the alert levels?
The dam safety engineer and the emergency action plan. The system holds and tests them and records every change.
Will it keep working in a flood?
Stations are sited above flood levels, run on their own power and use links that do not depend on the valley floor.
Can catchment data be shared with agencies?
Yes. Series can be exchanged in open hydrological formats under the agreement you set.
08Resources
The sources behind this page.
Public standards, regulations and guidance, cited where they apply. Each applies only where its jurisdiction or scope does.
- 1Federal Guidelines for Dam SafetyUS Federal Emergency Management Agency
- 2Bulletins on dam surveillance and monitoringInternational Commission on Large Dams (ICOLD)
- 3Guide to Hydrological Practices (WMO-No. 168)World Meteorological Organization
- 4Guide to Instruments and Methods of Observation (WMO-No. 8)World Meteorological Organization
09Related
Use cases and solutions.
Use caseLow-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.The full use case →SolutionHydrometeorological 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.Solutions for energy →SolutionStructural and ground-movement monitoring
GNSS, InSAR, tilt, strain and fibre sensing on bridges, dams, slopes, tailings and pipelines, with alert thresholds set by the owner.Solutions for energy →SolutionPrivate and federated observing grids
Design and operation of an organisation’s own grid on the open protocol, with provider admission, device qualification and federation across trust domains.Solutions for energy →10Energy: specialized fields
Other fields of this industry.
Specialized fieldUpstream oil and gas
Methane detection and quantification at wellpads and facilities, flare and tank monitoring, wellhead flow and pressure, on satellite and private links for sites with no one on them.The full field →Specialized fieldPipelines and midstream
Leak detection, cathodic protection, pressure and flow along the line, geohazards at crossings and compressor and pump stations, on LoRaWAN, satellite and private links over hundreds of kilometres.The full field →Specialized fieldThermal power plants
Continuous emissions, machine condition, cooling water and plant weather for gas, coal and biomass plants, with an industrial network that keeps the control system separate and secure.The full field →Specialized fieldWind farms
Wind resource and power performance, turbine condition, icing, lightning and wildlife monitoring, from the first met mast to an operating farm on one record.The full field →Specialized fieldSolar power plants
Irradiance, module temperature, soiling, inverter output and plant weather to international monitoring classes, for bankable performance ratios and fewer surprises in operation.The full field →Specialized fieldTransmission networks
Line ratings from measured weather and conductor state, wildfire and vegetation watch, substation automation and synchrophasor timing, on private LTE, microwave and fibre along the corridor.The full field →Specialized fieldDistribution networks and the grid edge
Feeder and transformer monitoring, distributed energy resources, fault location and outage evidence, on a utility private network that reaches every pole and substation.The full field →Bring us the site.
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