Testing of early warning systems

SYSTEMS to help give more accurate warnings about rising water levels and which could help reduce flood damage are being developed by researchers testing technology on the River Lee in Cork.

While the sensors giving depth measurements at two points on the river every 15 minutes might not prevent the volume of water flowing downstream, the project manager said the real-time updates could help with making best decisions in the aftermath of the kind of rainfalls which led to devastation in Cork and other parts of the country.

Dr Fiona Regan of DCU’s National Centre for Sensor Research leads the DEPLOY project, which will have collected a year of data at the end of March.

It was set up initially to find ways of remotely providing councils and health authorities with information on water quality levels, using five sensors between the Lee’s source at Gougane Barra and the Lee Maltings near where the river’s south channel broke a quay wall early last Friday morning.

“In future scenarios, decisions which are informed by timely accurate data will always be better decisions,” said Dr Regan.

The project funded by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Marine Institute is a partnership between DCU, the Tyndall National Institute in Cork, IDS Monitoring and the South-West River Basin District.