08/02/2005 - A project
to help flood forecasting and improve the
management of droughts, pollution and environmental
protection throughout the Thames valley has
reached a milestone as the Environment Agency
takes delivery of a groundbreaking new telemetry
system.
Incorporating leading web-based technology,
the Thames Regional Telemetry System will
replace the current ageing network - parts
of which date back to the early 1970s - and
will enable the Environment Agency to have
faster access to more accurate and detailed
environmental information.
The new system is designed to automatically
deliver information environment officers need
about the environment to displays located
in Environment Agency offices, communications
centres, flood rooms and at duty officers’
homes – 24 hours a day, every day of the year.
Officers will also be able to monitor and
control equipment such as flood defences,
pumps and sluice gates remotely.
All of the Environment Agency’s 850 remote
monitoring stations, which measure river levels
and flows, as well as other monitoring sites
have already been linked, and a staff-training
programme is under way. The new system will
go fully live on 1 September 2005, although
it could be used now as a back-up system in
emergencies.
The £3.6million project to install
the system in the Thames Region was supported
by funding from the Department for Environment,
Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). Significant
savings have been made as the Thames system
forms part of a wider Joint Telemetry project
with other Environment Agency regions in the
Midlands and Wales. The total cost of the
joint project across all three regions is
£6.7 million.
The final testing and hand-over of the new
system is an important milestone for the Thames
phase of the contract, which has been undertaken
by Serck Controls Ltd, Coventry. Engineering
consultants Carl Bro have also been working
on the project to deliver the system successfully.
John Walker, overall project manager for
the Environment Agency said: “Good information
systems and networks are vital for us as we
continue the drive to improve standards of
service across everything we do. For the first
time in the Thames valley this new system
will give us rapid access to all our live
data to inform our decisions.
“Flooding is a natural event that cannot
be completely prevented, but good preparation
can help people minimise the damage and distress
it can cause. The new system will support
future improvements to the flood warning service
in the region, to the benefit of those who
need it.”
Background Information
Telemetry
Telemetry plays a central and vital role in
what the Environment Agency does. We have
been using it for many years and it is currently
used at 4,000 sites across England and Wales
to monitor river gauges, rain gauges, tide
stations, climate stations, water quality
monitors, boreholes, air pollution monitors,
fish counters, gate controls, drainage pumps.
We combine the telemetry data with information
from other sources, such as rainfall radar
and weather forecasts and use it to drive
our forecasting models and databases. These
in turn feed our flood warning and information
systems.
The operational data we collect is used by
many parts of our business and is especially
critical to the work we do in Flood Risk,
Water Resources and Water Quality. It provides
vital and timely information on the state
of our river basins and coastlines so that
we can provide better flood warnings, river
management, licensing, regulation and environmental
protection.
It requires large reliable computer systems
to gather the monitored data. Advances in
technology and greater demands on our information
systems have led us to invest in the new telemetry
system.
Some key facts relating to the system and
project are:
The Joint Telemetry Project (JTP) is delivering
new telemetry systems to Environment Agency
Wales, Thames and Midlands.
The new Thames Regional Telemetry System (RTS)
replaces a number of stand-alone systems,
which had limited functionality and capacity.
The JTP Project is a 5-year project finishing
in December 2005.
Carl Bro are the Telemetry Consultants, providing
specialist technical advice and configuration.
They were appointed on the 31 December 2000.
Serck Controls Ltd are the telemetry system
supplier and were awarded the contract on
the 23 December 2001.
There are a total of 4,023 sensors monitored
by the telemetry system.
These break down as follows:
828 analogue sensors measure river levels,
river flows, pipe flows and borehole levels
130 rainfall counter sensors
265 water quality parameters
2,800 status indicators for security, fire,
mains power and pump on/off etc.
There are a further 4,394 signals derived
from the sensors to give flows and other information.
The telemetry system is a business critical
system. It operates on a duty stand-by basis
and is designed to be resilient and fault
tolerant.
The telemetry system is an open system, which
allows data to be imported and exported to
internal and external parties.
The telemetry system is web enabled, which
provides access to all staff.
The telemetry system runs on windows 2000
The telemetry system has 300Gb of storage,
which will enable 10 years worth of data to
be stored on line.
The telemetry system has 102 PSTN lines, which
are used to interrogate the outstations.
The telemetry system uses various communications
media to collect data (telephone, radio and
meteorburst).
All outstations can be interrogated in 15
minutes.
The telemetry system can display pictures
from web cameras.
The telemetry system can display information
as graphs, mimics, pictures and maps.
