Online monitoring system for soil erosion and non-point source pollution in the Three-gorge Reservoir Area

With complicated climatic and topographic conditions as well as improper human activities, soil erosion and non-point source pollution are widely distributed and of high intensity in the mountainous Three-gorge Reservoir Area. Especially owing to the Three-gorge Project´s different operation schemes, the water levels vary dramatically and the hydro-fluctuation belt area has become a special ecological vulnerable area. Yet the existing monitoring system is not advanced enough and it is inconvenient and difficult for the real-time transmission of data. In order to solve these problems, the present paper proposes an advanced and efficient online monitoring system integrated with a series of advanced technologies, including photo-electric probing technology, solar power supply technology, barrier-free data and images interactive transmitting technology, remote control technology, and so on. Meanwhile, the effect evaluating and model predicting for soil erosion and non-point source pollution is developed and incorporated into the system as well. The proposed system has realized the function of automatically online monitoring and it provides technical support for the model simulation and effect evaluation associated with releasing timely prediction and alert information related to soil erosion and non-point source pollution in the Three-gorge Reservoir Area. The present paper introduces the framework, architecture and application of the intelligent sensors with network system.