take, storage, discharge & Quality
Water and Flow Monitoring
Defensible water data for remote and regulated sites, designed, built and maintained in Newcastle.
Water take, water discharge and water storage are all measured, reported and audited in Australia now. What you have to prove, and how often, depends on what you are doing with the water and who regulates you.
An irrigator reporting take under a floodplain harvesting licence is answering a different question to a mine site demonstrating discharge quality at a licensed release point. A construction site tracking stormwater runoff is answering a third. The one thing they share is that a spreadsheet of manual readings taken when someone had time to drive out there no longer settles the question.
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Route 01
Measuring flow in an open channel, creek or floodway
SynaptiX® Flow measures flow from above the water. A radar sensor mounted on a bridge, culvert, headwall or pole reads the water level and the speed of the surface beneath it, without touching the water. Combined with a survey of the channel taken at installation, those readings give you flow rate and total volume through that point, updated about every five seconds.
Nothing is built in the channel. There are no civil works, no structure trapping sediment and no equipment under the water to foul or wash away in a high flow.
Route 02
Monitoring dam and storage levels
Remote dam level monitoring puts the reading in front of you without the drive out to the gauge board. You see the storage filling and drawing down as it happens, including the back dam you most need to watch.
Set the levels that matter to your operation and you hear about it while there is still time to act, whether that is an overflow, a storage running short before irrigation, or a sediment basin filling after rain. This applies to farm dams, mine site water dams, tailings storages, reservoirs and site tanks.
Route 03
Meeting floodplain harvesting obligations in NSW
If you hold a floodplain harvesting entitlement in NSW, how your storage is measured is set by the Floodplain Harvesting Measurement Policy. SynaptiX LID has been assessed and listed by the NSW Government as meeting that policy. It works with an approved storage meter and sends your readings automatically, via a WaterNSW SIM, to the government data acquisition service.
Each unit is sealed and solar-powered, comes with mounting frames for remote storages, and is installed by a Duly Qualified Person.
Route 04
Measuring water quality
Continuous water quality monitoring records pH, electrical conductivity and turbidity at your discharge point around the clock, not just when a sample is taken. These are the parameters that move fastest after rain or a process upset, and the ones a regulator will ask about.
Sensors are selected for the parameters in your licence conditions, readings are validated before they reach your reporting, and you are alerted when a parameter moves outside your limits.
As featured in the documentary series ‘The AgTech Revolution‘.
In episode 4 ‘Water Wise Farming ‘, Novecom’s former Managing Director, Jeremy Pola, talks about the benefits of being able to remotely monitor water resources.
Real-time monitoring tech reduces operational and ESG risks
Managing your environmental obligations and stakeholder expectations cannot be done with snapshot retrospective monitoring – better business decisions can be made based on timely, reliable data.
Water monitoring by sector
Every site measures water for a different reason. Here is what operators in each sector typically need to see.
Agriculture
- Dam, tank, trough and canal water levels
- Irrigation flow rates and usage efficiency
- Leaks and overflows
- Water quality for crops and livestock
- Sustainable water resource planning
Mining
- Water discharge and compliance
- Dam, reservoir and pit water level
- Flow in creeks, rivers, and catchments
- Water quality for environmental obligations
- Water use for dust suppression and processing activities
Infrastructure
- Sediment and water discharge from sites
- Water use for dust control and site operations
- Stormwater runoff compliance
- Temporary dam, reservoir and tank levels
- Real-time flow in stormwater channels and drains
Manufacturing
- Water consumption across production processes
- Discharge quality and flow for environmental compliance
- Storage tank and reservoir water levels
- Leaks or anomalies in water systems
- Sustainability and reporting targets
Renewable energy
- Water use and discharge during site construction
- Dam, tank, and reservoir levels at solar or wind farms
- Water-efficient operations at battery storage or hydrogen plants
- Environmental water impacts for regulatory compliance
- Real-time flow for cooling systems and storage facilities
Transport
- Water discharge at ports, rail yards and transport hubs
- Stormwater runoff from large paved areas
- Water quality impacts from vehicle washdown operations
- Retention basins and detention ponds at airports and logistics centres
- Environmental compliance for major infrastructure projects
Integrated monitoring
Water rarely sits on its own licence. The same field infrastructure can carry dust and air quality, noise, weather, soil and blast vibration monitoring, reported through one system rather than four.
Floodplain harvesting · NSW
Why irrigators and DQPs are choosing SynaptiX LID for floodplain harvesting
Duly Qualified Persons installing floodplain harvesting meters in NSW explain why they specify SynaptiX LID, and a Northern NSW irrigator describes using hourly reporting during flood events to manage gate operations.
Who we work with
Talk to the team about your water monitoring obligations
Tell us what you have to report and who you report it to. We will tell you what measuring it properly involves, and what it will take to keep it running.