Application of wireless sensor network in Yangtze River basin water environment monitoring

Monitoring water quality of Three Gorges Reservoir of Yangtze River is an important but difficult task due to its vast and complex terrain. We have designed an automated water quality monitoring based on wireless sensor network. The system features unattended wireless sensor network architecture, distributed data collection, transmission of identification and detection data through wireless network based on GPRS. The considerations of the design ensure the monitoring accuracy, minimal accuracy of sensor for a single node. The system´s fault tolerance is secured by the existence of redundant nodes which are densely distributed in the monitored area. This paper discusses the structure of environmental monitoring system, the design of the system hardware and software of monitoring equipment, system online test environment using actual measurement data, water environment the main detection parameters obtained. The preliminary results show that, the designed system can meet the need of monitoring parameters of water environment in the Three Gorges Reservoir area.