Solar-Powered IoT-Based Early Warning and Detection System for Mitigating Headwater Phenomenon

Headwater incidents are often characterized by a sudden, rapid rise in water levels and increased turbidity of river water. Despite these indicators, such incidents frequently lead to severe damage to infrastructure, the environment, and even loss of life. This is primarily attributed to limited public awareness of these warning signs and the ineffectiveness or under-evaluation of existing early warning systems. To address these challenges, this project aims to develop an Internet of Things (IoT)-based early warning system for headwaters in recreational areas. The system integrates an ESP32 microcontroller, ultrasonic and TDS sensors, an alarm with light indicators, the ThingsBoard IoT platform, and short message service (SMS) notification services. The system successfully identified headwater dangers, recording water level decreases from 146 cm to 56 cm and TDS increases from 152 ppm to 1472 ppm over two hours. It initiated warning and evacuation signals in response to threshold violations, running stably on solar power and conducting real-time monitoring with a 5 s response time. By providing such an effective solution, this system seeks to minimize the environmental and infrastructural impacts of headwater incidents while safeguarding lives.