Instrument Systems Update

Information about the latest technology and projects of NIWA's Instrument Systems team.

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Issues

In this issue: NIWA works with Christchurch City Council to remap the city’s post-quake water flows and limit the impact of future floods; nitrate is the most widespread contaminant present in NZ groundwater—is it time for continuous nitrate monitoring and is it possible?; we unveil NIWA’s new laser water- level sensor—the answer to precise, remote, real-time groundwater measurements.
In this issue: NIWA has designed, supplied and installed a complex web-enabled automatic control system, comprised of nearly 60 control stations, and software to manage the water distribution across Rangitata South Irrigation (RSI); Technologists, researchers, farmers, regulators and irrigation scheme operators are jointly evolving a water use strategy for Canterbury; Rain and irrigation water can transport fertilizer, farm chemicals, animal waste and pathogens to unknown destinations underground, in various proportions and concentrations.
In this issue: solving a unique water abstraction and consent monitoring challenge at Lake Alta; tailoring weather and soil moisture data to aid irrigation management by north-Canterbury farmers; incorporating a NIWA snow and ice monitoring station into a global experiment; using wireless technology to collect multiple environmental data from scattered monitoring sites.
We investigate; the impact of Christchurch's M7.1 earthquake on a groundwater monitoring bore, how our irrigation monitoring and control work can help you meet your irrigation consent requirements and how we make harbour tides and currents visible.
In this issue we show how we are using technology to help improve weather monitoring in Fiji, manage climate threats and opportunities in Samoa, find ways to reduce pollutants from domestic wood-burners and understand contaminant loads in dairy farm runoff.
In this issue we look at measuring sea ice break up, highlighting the 'dark side' of groundwater management, revealing the complexities of the wind and tracking the sun.
Before 2009, the Instrument Systems Update was produced in print and PDF form. You can download the PDFs from this page.