Disdro

Can cities predict where floods will occur during heavy rainfall? What are the best solutions to minimize damage and take preventive action to save millions of dollars in repairs related to floods and other rain damage? To answer these questions and take adequate action, real-time rain monitoring is key.

Disdro is a smart rain meter: it measures rain acoustically. It can even tell the difference between the size of rain drops and measures both rain intensity as well as distribution. All due to the art of listening. Its real-time data are automatically uploaded to a free platform for further analysis. Being robust and low-cost, Disdro comes with zero-maintenance, easy installation and automatic data logging.

Testing Disdro in Myanmar
Together with local students, six Disdro’s were placed throughout Myanmar. The long test campaigns in Myanmar allowed for extensive testing during which Disdro has optimised the product for use in tropical climates. Version 3.0 performs excellent now: it is able to cope with storms and extremely high temperatures and is still completely reliable and accurate in its data collection and real-time transfer. Students and experts from ITC Bago also collected data from traditional tipping buckets and sent these back to the Netherlands for verification and learned Disdro’s programming language.

Using Disdro
Disdro could be used for: collecting data on rainfall and detecting rainfall trends, preventing city flooding and soil damage, protecting harvests, irrigation infrastructures and creating city infrastructures and industrial zones that are safe from rain damage.

Potential Clients
National and local government authorities (e.g. cities, hydrology departments, meteorological departments and urban planning); International donors; Consultancy and engineering firms; Financial sector (e.g. banking and insurance companies).