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Levees and coastal defencesLevees and sea walls, watched before the flood.
Levees, dikes and sea walls protect people and land and are tested only when water is high. Piezometers, settlement points, water level gauges, wave sensors and cameras report to one record the defence manager and the flood authority use to find weak sections and act during the flood.
Plan a deploymentHow it worksStation Builder- Industry
- Infrastructure
- Measurements
- 5
- Sources cited
- 4
Infrastructure · Levees and coastal defences
Tested only by the flood
A levee or sea wall can stand for decades before high water tests it, and many are old, long and of unknown construction. Weak sections show themselves by seepage and movement as the water rises. Measuring how each section responds lets defence managers find weak spots before the flood finds them.
What is measured
Pressure, levels, settlement and waves
Piezometers in the levee body and foundation read pore water pressure; gauges read the water on the river or sea side; GNSS follows crest settlement; wave sensors and cameras on the crest watch for overtopping, and weather stations record the storm that drives it.
- Instruments
- Piezometers · Level gauges · Crest GNSS · Wave sensors · Cameras
The base node
Each section against its normal
Each reach node compares pore pressures with the water level and the response the section showed in earlier high water, flags unusual rises that suggest seepage, follows crest settlement and raises overtopping alerts from waves and cameras, signing every value.
Radio and links
LoRaWAN along the line, microwave home
Piezometers and gauges spread along many kilometres reach gateways on high points over LoRaWAN. Gateways and camera sites link to the operations centre over microwave, independent of public networks that may fail in the flood, with satellite for remote reaches.
- Links
- LoRaWAN · Microwave · Satellite
How it works
From a rising pressure to sandbags
As the river rises, a piezometer at one section reads pressure climbing faster than in past floods. The reach node flags it and alerts the operations centre with the level and a camera image. A crew finds seepage at the toe and places emergency works, and the record keeps it.
From order to operation · Order
Scope the defence line
The scope reads the defence inventory, condition assessments, past failures and the flood plan. Nexus Observatory Inc. returns the section plan with the reasons for each, the radio design, the integration with flood forecasting and operations and a price per section and per year.
Plan a deploymentFrom order to operation · Survey
Walk the crest with the engineer
Crews walk the defence line with the authority’s engineer to choose representative and weak sections for piezometers, places for level gauges and wave sensors, crest points for GNSS and camera sites. They check gateway coverage and microwave paths, and access when water is high.
From order to operation · Permits
Defences, land and nature
Drilling into a defence needs the authority’s approval and a method that does not weaken it. Landholders consent to access, and works in protected habitats follow their rules. Every approval is kept with the section it covers. Access routes are agreed for flood conditions.
From order to operation · Build
Build for the flood
Piezometers, gauges, GNSS receivers, cameras, endpoints, gateways and radios are built, tested together and enrolled with their identities. Each section is configured with its expected response and alert levels, and every part is labelled with its chainage. Spares are kept at the depot for repairs after floods.
Open the Station BuilderFrom order to operation · Install
Install at low water
Crews drill and seal piezometers in the levee body and foundation, mount gauges, wave sensors and cameras above the highest recorded water, set GNSS on the crest and raise gateways on high points. Every point is surveyed and photographed. Cables are buried or protected.
From order to operation · Commission
Learn the normal response
Each node proves its identity. Piezometers are read manually, gauges checked against staff gauges and GNSS settled. The first tides or high flows show each section’s normal response, and alerts are tested to the operations centre and the flood authority.
From order to operation · Operate
Watch the weak sections in the flood
During high water, operators see pressures, levels, settlement and overtopping section by section. Unusual seepage sends crews to look and to place emergency works, and the flood authority receives alerts with the evidence. Every event is reviewed with the record.
From order to operation · Maintain
Inspect, check and repair
Points are checked on the inspection cycle and after every flood, piezometers read manually, cameras cleaned and batteries changed on plan. Results feed the condition assessment and the repair programme, and every change is recorded against the chainage. Spares are kept ready for quick swaps.
Book field servicesData products
For engineers, operators and planners
Defence engineers receive each section’s response to high water; operations centres and flood authorities receive seepage and overtopping alerts; asset managers receive crest settlement records; flood risk planners receive event reviews. Each product carries its chainage and calibration. Reports are dated and versioned.
See the data productsEvidence
Defences assessed on evidence
Every reading, alert, inspection and repair is signed and kept. Levee performance follows the international levee handbook, overtopping follows the European manual, flood management follows the floods directive, and data is exchanged through open water standards, so assessments rest on measured response.
- Drawn against
- International Levee Handbook · EurOtop · Directive 2007/60/EC · OGC WaterML
What you get
Structural 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. Delivered as managed service and data licence, for infrastructure, mining and pipeline operators, transport agencies. Scale: Asset portfolios. Service levels are written as numbers you can measure on your own dashboard.
Talk to salesNext step
Plan levees and coastal defences 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 levees and coastal defences. 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 contextFlood defence authorities manage long lines of levees, dikes and sea walls, many old and of unknown construction. They inspect them, assess their condition and watch them during floods for seepage, instability and overtopping. Flood risk management plans set priorities, and international guidance covers levee performance and wave overtopping of sea defences.
Hazards
- Seepage and internal erosion through or under levees
- Slope instability during high water
- Overtopping by waves or surge
- Settlement lowering the crest
- Weak sections that are not known until they fail
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pore water pressure | Piezometers in the levee body and foundation at representative sections | Continuous, faster during high water | 1 |
| Water level on the river or sea side | Gauges along the defence line | Continuous | 2 |
| Crest settlement and movement | GNSS and surveyed points along the crest | Continuous and on survey cycles | 1 |
| Waves and overtopping | Wave sensors seaward and cameras on the crest | Continuous during storms | 3 |
| Weather | Stations along the defence line | Continuous | 4 |
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 section point: piezometers and a level gauge on a LoRaWAN endpoint, or GNSS and a camera on an edge node.
Build a station → - 02
Site
A defence reach: section points, gateways on high points and a microwave link to the operations centre.
Plan a site → - 03
Fleet
Every reach of an authority run as one fleet, with one record.
Managed offers → - 04
Network
Defence authorities, flood forecasters and emergency services exchange levels and alerts through open standards.
The open protocol →
- 01Water level gauge
- 02GNSS geodetic station
- 03Fixed camera
- 04Compact weather station
- 05LPWAN endpoint
- 06LoRaWAN gateway
- 07Edge node (Wedge)
- 08Point-to-point microwave
- 09Solar array
Radio and links
LoRaWAN
Piezometers and gauges spread along many kilometres of defence reach gateways on high points at very low power.
Radio and links
Point-to-point microwave
Gateways and camera sites link to the operations centre independent of public networks that may fail in the flood.
Radio and links
Satellite
A satellite path keeps remote reaches reporting when everything else is down.
Edge computeEach reach node compares pore pressures with water level and the section’s expected response, flags unusual rises that suggest seepage, follows crest settlement and raises overtopping alerts from waves and cameras.
PowerPoints run on solar and batteries, mounted above the highest recorded water.
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.
Levees and coastal defences: 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 WaterML 2.0OGC SensorThings APICommon Alerting Protocol 09 Power and structure Supplies 12 V DC, 24 V DC, 48 V DC to thefield equipment Vibrating-wire piezometers 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 Fixed camera 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 Section response to high water Seepage and overtopping alerts Crest settlement records Event reviews 09 Solar array RS-485 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 | Fixed cameraFixed visible-light camera for site security, scene monitoring and machine vision. | Ethernet | RTSP with ONVIF profiles, MQTT 5 | PoE |
| 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 | — |
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 defence line
The scope reads the defence inventory, condition assessments, past failures and the flood plan. Nexus Observatory Inc. returns the section plan with the reasons for each, the radio design, the integration with flood forecasting and operations and a price per section and per year. 21
- 02 Survey
Walk the crest with the engineer
Crews walk the defence line with the authority’s engineer to choose representative and weak sections for piezometers, places for level gauges and wave sensors, crest points for GNSS and camera sites. They check gateway coverage and microwave paths, and access when water is high.
- 03 Permits
Defences, land and nature
Drilling into a defence needs the authority’s approval and a method that does not weaken it. Landholders consent to access, and works in protected habitats follow their rules. Every approval is kept with the section it covers. Access routes are agreed for flood conditions.
- 04 Build
Build for the flood
Piezometers, gauges, GNSS receivers, cameras, endpoints, gateways and radios are built, tested together and enrolled with their identities. Each section is configured with its expected response and alert levels, and every part is labelled with its chainage. Spares are kept at the depot for repairs after floods.
- 05 Install
Install at low water
Crews drill and seal piezometers in the levee body and foundation, mount gauges, wave sensors and cameras above the highest recorded water, set GNSS on the crest and raise gateways on high points. Every point is surveyed and photographed. Cables are buried or protected.
- 06 Commission
Learn the normal response
Each node proves its identity. Piezometers are read manually, gauges checked against staff gauges and GNSS settled. The first tides or high flows show each section’s normal response, and alerts are tested to the operations centre and the flood authority.
- 07 Operate
Watch the weak sections in the flood
During high water, operators see pressures, levels, settlement and overtopping section by section. Unusual seepage sends crews to look and to place emergency works, and the flood authority receives alerts with the evidence. Every event is reviewed with the record. 13
- 08 Maintain
Inspect, check and repair
Points are checked on the inspection cycle and after every flood, piezometers read manually, cameras cleaned and batteries changed on plan. Results feed the condition assessment and the repair programme, and every change is recorded against the chainage. Spares are kept ready for quick swaps.
06Data products and integration
What it delivers, to whom, and into which systems.
Data products
- Section response to high waterDefence engineers
- Seepage and overtopping alertsOperations centres and flood authorities
- Crest settlement recordsAsset managers
- Event reviewsFlood risk planners
Integration
- Flood forecastingLevels and overtopping are shared through OGC WaterML and SensorThings.
- Emergency responseAlerts reach the flood authority in the Common Alerting Protocol.
- Asset managementSettlement and section response feed the defence condition record.
Exchanged through OGC WaterML 2.0, OGC SensorThings API, Common Alerting Protocol.
07Questions buyers ask
Before you scope it.
Can monitoring find weak sections?
It shows how each section responds to high water, so unusual seepage stands out.
Does drilling weaken the levee?
Drilling follows an approved method and every hole is sealed.
Will it work during the flood?
Points sit above recorded water, run on solar and use links independent of public networks.
Who issues flood warnings?
The flood authority; the network supplies the evidence.
08Resources
The sources behind this page.
Public standards, regulations and guidance, cited where they apply. Each applies only where its jurisdiction or scope does.
- 1The International Levee Handbook (C731)CIRIA · 2013
- 2Directive 2007/60/EC on the assessment and management of flood risksEuropean Union · 2007
- 3EurOtop: Manual on wave overtopping of sea defences and related structuresEurOtop · 2018
- 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 →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 infrastructure →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 infrastructure →10Infrastructure: specialized fields
Other fields of this industry.
Specialized fieldConstruction sites
Dust, noise and vibration at the site boundary, wind for cranes and lifts, and site cameras, on cellular from the hoarding, so a site keeps its permit limits and answers its neighbours with evidence.The full field →Specialized fieldExcavations and tunnelling
Settlement and movement of the ground and nearby buildings, pore pressure, wall deflection and vibration during deep excavations and tunnel drives, with automatic total stations and GNSS, under the observational method.The full field →Specialized fieldStructural health of major structures
Vibration, strain, movement and wind on long-span bridges, towers, stadium roofs and tall buildings in service, on fibre and an industrial network, so engineers see how a structure behaves between inspections.The full field →Specialized fieldHeritage buildings
Crack and tilt movement, vibration from traffic and works, and indoor climate for collections in historic buildings in use, on LoRaWAN with nothing drilled that does not have to be, so conservation decisions rest on evidence.The full field →Bring us the site.
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