Wireless Sensor Network Springbrook

What is happening?
Latest updates
What is planned?
Why Springbrook?
Applications
Technical
More information

What is happening?

World Heritage listed Springbrook National Park is the site for a state-of-the-art monitoring system being developed through a collaborative project between EPA, CSIRO, the Australian Rainforest Conservation Society and other Government agencies. This system will track the restoration of biodiversity at the site and provide insights into how microclimates and biodiversity of the Springbrook plateau change over time.

A wireless sensor network is a collection of mini computers, each with several sensors plugged into them. These sensor nodes "talk" to each other using wireless technology and transfer their data in real-time back to a central hub before being transferred over the Internet to a database.

There are currently 10 sensor nodes deployed at Springbrook, monitoring temperature, humidity, leaf wetness, soil moisture, wind speed and wind direction.

This project aims to enhance knowledge of rainforest restoration and its effectiveness at recovering biodiversity, as well as to develop an improved efficient tool for monitoring biodiversity and its condition.

Latest updates

April 2008: Nine sensor nodes deployed, each with sensors measuring leaf wetness, soil moisture, temperature, humidity and wind (direction and speed).
June 2008: Sensor node software updated and tenth sensor node deployed - stage one complete.
August 2008: Evaluating a range of sensors and collecting data for planning stage two.
April 2009: Stage 2 of the project has begun. Field trials of new sensors and the addition of more nodes to the network will begin in the coming months. New sensors will include rainfall, light and vegetation growth.

What is planned?

Over the next two years, a network of up to 200 sensor nodes will be deployed at the Springbrook site, measuring a wider range of indicators.

This extensive network will include bio-acoustic and potentially video monitoring technologies. Bio-acoustic techniques will identify the sounds of specific animal species (such as birds, frogs and bats) and return this information to a central database. This method is currently under development.

Automated video monitoring techniques are also being investigated to help support the automated identification of species.

Why Springbrook?

The challenging and diverse environment in and around Springbrook National Park, part of the Gondwana Rainforests of Australia World Heritage Area, presents a perfect proving ground for this innovative technology.

The Springbrook site presents a unique opportunity to work on land which is going to be restored from agricultural grassland to native rainforest vegetation. Springbrook is a high rainfall environment displaying a wide range of environmental gradients, features which will help assess the suitability of the technology to deliver information from a complex environment.

Applications

This type of technology has primarily been developed for use in the mining, medical and defence industries. Queensland is leading the way in implementing this technology for large scale environmental monitoring, and the applications are almost limitless.

Additional indicators including light, rainfall, fog sensors, water quality, acoustics and video are all being investigated as part of the broader deployment.

These indicators will have application in areas including water quality, agriculture, satellite remote sensing, forestry, horticulture, climate change and others on local, national and international stages.

Technical

This system is using CSIRO's 3rd generation FLECKâ„¢ technology. These FLECKâ„¢ nodes can communicate at distances of up to 500m and will be developed to integrate with a variety of environmental and biodiversity sensors.

Sensors currently in use include: