Keeping Rosignano Marittimo safe: work begins on the new early warning system

On September 10, 2017 the town of Rosignano, as well as Livorno and Collesalvetti, was hit by an exceptional wave of bad weather. Considering the risks arising from the increasingly concentrated and intense precipitations, as well as the rise in hydraulic risk due to the presence on the territory of buried waterways (which with this type of events risk not being able to bear the waterload), the Municipality of Rosignano, among the other activities undertaken for the restoration of the territory and to increase the safety of citizens, decided to install a monitoring and early warning system connected to the water level the two canals of "Fosso Cotone" and "Botro Secco", in the territory of the Municipality of Rosignano Marittimo.

This important measure of adaptation to climate change and to the risks connected to it, was financed by the ADAPT Project (“Assisting the adaptation to climate change of the urban systems of the cross-border area") out of the Maritime Italy-France Cross-border Program (INTERREG) 2014-2020.

CAE was awarded the open tender announced by the Municipality which requires the supply, installation, activation and maintenance of a real-time monitoring and early warning “turnkey system” for measuring hydrometric and pluviometric parameters.

When predefined thresholds are exceeded, the system will be able to automatically send alert and pre-alert SMS to the municipal administration operators in charge, and to warn the population locally thanks to a distributed network of acoustic warning devices (sirens), which will be placed along the roads in the area considered most at risk.

The proposed system is highly upgradeable, with different types of sensors or alarm devices, which can be integrated and configured. By default, when the thresholds are exceeded all the sirens will be activated; however, if the administration wishes it, it will be possible to configure the system so that when the threshold defined for one of the two canals is exceeded, only some of the sirens are activated, while the other are activated only when the threshold of the other canal is exceeded.

One of the two stations will be equipped with mains power, while the other will be autonomous from the energy standpoint, thanks to a solar cell power supply system and a backup battery allowing the system to operate for over a month, even in total absence of insolation.

The system will consist of 2 hydrometric stations equipped respectively with:

• Mhaster Datalogger, which allows: high computing power, standard interfaces for external communication and compatibility with standard network protocols. The datalogger can be configured remotely via Internet and allows early warning procedures to be set. The Mhaster Datalogger also features an open source operating system: Linux;
• pressure hydrometer or LPR radar hydrometer;
• ACTI-Link Module for wireless connection of the station to local alert systems;
• GPRS/UMTS communication module;
• webcam;
• 10 sirens;
• one of the two stations will also be equipped with a PG2 rain gauge.

The data collected by the station will be made available to the Administration both locally (thanks to the LCD display of the Mhaster datalogger) and remotely, in two different ways:

- by connecting via an Internet browser to the station's web server service, i.e. the data display website on the control unit of the Mhaster station (Web Mhaster). This site, in addition to data visualization, allows access to the station's configuration functions;

- via Tablet and/or Smartphone, using the DroidMhas App.

By acquiring an innovative and open system for the mitigation of floods and water damage risk, the Municipality of Rosignano  stands out as an Administration that deeply cares about safeguarding its citizens.

Back to the news index