Design and Implementation of Hydrological Sensor Web Optimal Deployment Prototype System

Precipitation stations and streamflow stations are important components of hydrological monitoring networks. To effectively obtain observation data, an optimal deployment of different hydrological stations should be established to maximize the spatial coverage and sensing capability given that such resources are often limited. By transforming this problem into a maximal covering location problem (MCLP), a MCLP-based approach can be used to solve the problem of siting hydrological stations. This paper designs and implements a hydrological sensor web optimal deployment system (HSWODS) for determining the optimal locations to deploy hydrological stations based on the maximal covering location approach. The main functions of the HSWODS's optimization procedure include demand representation, weighting scheme design, maximal coverage range definition, finite dominant set identification, model calculation, and deployment visualization. The optimal deployment of precipitation stations and streamflow stations in the lower reach of the Jinsha River Basin is selected for this study to demonstrate that HSWODS provides a flexible and extended platform to optimize the configuration of different hydrological stations for achieving the spatial coverage maximization.