Oct 20, 2014

Back in 2011, Thailand saw one of the worst monsoon seasons in recent memory. The Chao Phraya River flooded, its overflowing waters reaching about 240,000 square kilometers of land. The natural disaster impacted over 12.8 million Thailand citizens, and cost approximately $45 billion in damages. Due to this event, the country decided to implement a wireless mesh network to boost its public safety.

Although typically used to boost crime fighting capabilities, officials in Thailand are leveraging their Firetide wireless mesh network to monitor the Chao Phraya River for flooding. The country recently completed the third phase of their deployment, enabling them to keep an eye on rising water levels and plan ahead for public safety. Currently, the system spans a geographic area of 231 miles, and officials have plans to expand the network in the future, Government Security News Magazine reported.

This represents the first use of wireless technology to monitor flood levels in the world. The wireless system provides real-time, high-definition video feeds of the Chao Phraya River as well as telemetry data. This allows officials to better forecast the chance of a flood and also the potential for historical data collection.

According to MuniWireless, the wireless mesh network is also utilized to monitor the river’s large water gates and dams that release water downstream. This supervisory control and data acquisition solution, or SCADA, makes flooding forecasts all the more accurate.

A surveillance solution for the king

Besides providing Thailand officials a view of the river, the wireless mesh system is also accessible to the public over the Internet. The technology is especially helpful for Thailand’s King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who would annually take a trip to the river for a first-hand look water levels, the well-being of the people in the area and the country’s agricultural fields. Now that Adulyadej is 86 years old, making this annual journey is increasingly difficult. Firetide’s wireless mesh system enables him to keep watch over the water levels and offer information to citizens about the potential for floods.

Not possible without wireless

Chachawal Punyavateenu​n, Thailand Royal Irrigation’s deputy director general, noted that this extensive river monitoring system would not have been possible without the use of wireless technology. The cost and safety concerns would have been too great if wired or fiber technology was utilized.

“Point-to-point and point-to-multipoint wireless technologies were tested, but were not able to overcome the technical requirements of this challenging network,” Punyavateenu​n said. “Furthermore, the speed in which the project team could deploy a fully redundant wireless infrastructure consisting of over 25 wireless links could have only been accomplished with Firetide’s intelligent multipoint-to-multipoint wireless mesh architecture.”