EDINBURG, Texas (ValleyCentral) — To help manage flooding in the City of Edinburg, leaders with the public works department have installed a Real-Time Hydrological System.
“Basically, we have our solar panel that runs power to our computer here and then we also have our probe and measuring information down in the bottom of the ditch,” stormwater manager Robert Valenzuela said.
Staff with the Edinburg Public Works Department says the Real-Time Hydrological System will allow the department to get data from rain events, elevations, to even water temperature.
“Based on that data we will be able to gather it every 5 minutes, we can use our phones or device and we will be able to know if we need to start responding to a neighborhood in order to start dewatering or checking the outfalls to make sure that everything is flowing correctly,” City of Edinburg Public Works Director Vincent Romero said.
Officials say data collected can be used to help with preparation and response efforts for the community.
“Once this ditch reaches a certain level of height it will send us a detailed warning system, hey you’re in the process of having some ponding or some flooding,” Valenzuela said.
The department is looking into installing more systems throughout the city because the sensors with this project can track several items.
“In the old days people go and just look at the ditch and see the water surface level, okay it’s half full it’s three-quarters full, but that doesn’t really tell us what it’s doing upstream or downstream so these sensors will basically help us to determine how much water is coming in, how fast it’s coming in what it’s doing throughout our city and then how fast it’s going out,” Romero said.
The department anticipates installing another system in about a month.
