I am currently tasked of developing a project that will monitor the flood/water level in several bridges. I've done a little research and so far the only reliable range detector sensors are ultrasonic sensors. My issue with this is that it can only measure distance for a couple of meters. The system will be situated in a bridge and the water below it is around 15-20 meters. Is there any reliable sensor that I can use for this particular case? If none, maybe there is a workaround for this instead of just relying on a range finder.
Have a look at what water companies do and what is commercially available for this task ( don’t reinvent the wheel ) .
Level sensing I’ve seen locally uses devices mounted closer to the water .
There may be good reason why a bridge mounted device may be technically difficult - some research by you needed .
however, the ultrasonic sensor was only a metre over the water level
I was reading the sensors and uploading data every 10 minutes
you can see the river is tidal – rise and fall of about 10cm
This is actually what i'm trying to do as well. Sadly, checking with my local suppliers, these sensors are not available in my area and needs to be shipped internationally which costs more than double than the cost of the actual sensors.
I have used the VL53L0X Time-of-Flight Distance Sensor and similar sensors for indoor level measurements on water tanks
however, waterproof TOF sensors appear to cost several hundred £
