AMRITA Wireless Sensor Network System for Landslide Detection

The pilot deployment of India's first landslide detection system using wireless sensor network is in place at Munnar, Idukki, Kerala, India.

The devastation and loss of life caused by landslides affects hundreds of people every year around the world. Amrita University's rainfall induced landslide detection system uses heterogeneous network that includes wireless sensor networks in combination with Wi-Fi and satellite technology. The pilot site chosen for this study (see the map in Figure 1) is highly prone to landslides due to systemic monsoon induced rainfalls in the region.

Figure 1: Map of landslide prone deployment site

The actual deployment site (shown in Figure 2) is in the Idukki district of the southern state of Kerala, India. The existing infrastructure at Munnar provides the infrastructure needed for retrieving geological and hydrological data from the field and the data is transmitted long distant for further analysis. The data received from the geophysical sensors are transmitted through the wireless sensor network which uses a two layer hierarchical topology.

Figure 2: Actual Deployment Site, Anthoniar Colony, Munnar, Idukki, Kerala, India

Multiple sets of geophysical sensors are located in a distributed manner inside a column, called as sensor column (as shown in Figure 3). The sensor columns are approximately 5 -6 meters long (as shown in Figure 4), are buried deep inside the earth and the data from them are retrieved using lower layer wireless sensor nodes attached to the sensor columns.

Figure 3: Sensor column Figure 4: Sensor column before deployment

Figure 4: Sensor Cloumn before deployment

The lower layer wireless sensor nodes are wirelessly connected to a hierarchy of upper level wireless nodes that forward the data on to a Gateway. The data is then sent via a directional Wi-Fi link to a Field Data Management Center (FMC). The data is then forwarded over a satellite link to Data Management Center (DMC) which has sophisticated landslide data processing and modeling capability, located at Amrita University, Amritapuri campus situated approximately 252 kilometers away from the deployment field.

Figure 5: One of the deployed sensor columns connected to the wireless sensor node

AMRITA wireless sensor network system for landslide detection has been developed as part of the research project WINSOC ( Wireless Sensor Networks with Self-Organization Capabilities for Critical and Emergency Applications) which is co-funded by INFSO DG of European Commission. Further details about the project can be seen in www.winsoc.org.