Water is perhaps the most valuable resource on earth, as it’s required to sustain the lives of plants, animals, and humans. Through the years, however, the quantity of clean water diminished due to the excessive overuse and abuse that humans inflicted on the precious resource through the years. To prevent further loss of water reserves, water resource management is essential. Water resource management involves effectively distributing water to various agencies and usages, such as drinking, agriculture, and power generation plants. Improving water resource management allows industries to acquire the essential information necessary to manage water supplies and meet the ever-evolving demands for water. For water resource management efforts to be effective, however, certain application requirements must be put into place. We go through some of the key application requirements for water resource management.

Long Distance Communication

Water resource management efforts often span large geographical areas, so long distance communication is essential. This means communication is required far beyond the standard 100M Ethernet distance. Fiber optics provide the ideal solution for long distance communication between dam infrastructures and off-sight administration centers.

Management Software

Carrying out the complex task of water resource management requires several types of management software. Essential software includes Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP), Virtual Local Area Networks (VLANs), Internet Group Management Protocol (IGMP), and Quality of Service (QoS) technology.

Data Collection

The effective operation of water resource management efforts calls for high reliability, which makes redundancy a key application requirement. Network data redundancy plays an essential role in protecting important information and ensuring that valuable data isn’t lost. In addition, network redundancy is essential to prevent a single point of failure in the infrastructure of the equipment involved.

Data Collection

Data collection plays an integral role in water resources management processes. To function efficiently and reliably, systems required for water resource management—such as dams—require the collection of data remotely and locally. This ensures all critical information is obtained.

Networking Equipment

Many dam infrastructures were created many years ago. Such infrastructures commonly continue to utilize serial equipment. However, significant electronic noise emanates from the large motors, turbines, and power of dams, so data communication must resist such interference. This requires the use of industrial grade high MTBF networking equipment.

Serial Isolation Protection

Information can be provided to control centers via various different communication mediums, which includes serial, Ethernet, fiber optics, or wireless. This means serial isolation protection is required to account for voltage difference potentials.

Centralized Management and Monitoring

For safety and security purposes, centralized management and monitoring of water resources management facilities in the form of local administration centers is essential. Such centers monitor key data water intake, distribution, and power generation.

Antaira Technologies is a leading industrial networking communication and technology manufacturer. Our extensive array of reliable, cutting-edge industrial networking solutions ranges from industrial managed Ethernet switches to unmanaged PoE switches, and industrial wireless bridges. For more information regarding our products, contact us today.