Abstract:
Water scarcity is increasingly becoming a major and worrying concern in various global
locations. In many rural regions within Kenya, the provision of reticulated water supply
derived from reservoirs is either unavailable or inadequate, leading a significant
proportion of households to rely on groundwater, precipitation, river runoff, or a mix
thereof for their water needs. Nevertheless, the impacts of climate change have
significantly diminished the accessibility of this vital resource. In recent years, there has
been a noticeable global increase in population growth, resulting in high demands for
both surface and groundwater extraction. This phenomenon has led to increased
pressure on water resources through increased abstraction of river water, especially in
the upper Tana basin, leading to diminished water availability downstream in certain
streams. The escalation of abstraction rates presents a substantial peril to the economy,
social, environmental, and ecological equilibrium of ecosystems. The primary objective
of this research is to optimize river water abstraction spatially within the hydrological
reference units. This study presents a novel river discharge monitoring system that
enhances the efficiency, size, reproduction, deployment approach, and data
transmission capabilities of existing systems. The primary components of the system
consist of the flow velocity sensor, temperature sensor, and water level sensor. The
system utilizes an Arduino Nano, which is a programmable microcontroller using an
ATmega328P chip. This microcontroller is connected to a GSM SIM800L module,
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enabling the transmission of data in real time to the server. The river discharge
monitoring system is deployed across the hydrological reference units just before the
confluence points within the Muringato catchment. In conclusion, this study integrates
GIS and IoT technologies to produce low-cost prototype hardware that improves the
efficiency and effectiveness of water resource abstraction by measuring discharge at
various hydrological reference units. The research has the potential to provide crucial
real-time data on river discharge, which contributes to the expansion of the national
spatial data infrastructure and enables the efficient and sustainable extraction of water
resources. Moreover, this will facilitate the informed decision-making of relevant
stakeholders. The information gathered will be used to assess the applicability of the
deployed system in accurately facilitating abstraction within the Muringato catchment.
