18 June 2002
Edition 1.2
A: The Emery Water Conservancy District Office is in Castle Dale. The purpose or goal of this site is to make the most efficient use of the water available, specifically for irrigation purposes.
A: The geographical region that the EWCD covers almost all of Emery County, excluding only the top-east most corner. The EWCD manages most if not all the water resources in the county. Some of these include: Huntington Creek, Muddy River, Green River, Cottonwood Creek, San Rafael River, and Ferron Creek. The major cities serviced are; Castle Dale, Clawson, Cleveland, Elmo, Emery, Ferron, Green River, Hiawatha, Huntington, Moore, and Orangeville.
A: There are many data collection stations along the rivers, canals, and at reservoirs in the county. Each station is equiped with sensors that measure various parameters (i.e. voltage, river flow, temperature). The data is recorded by a commercial datalogger (CR-10 from Campbell Scientific). Some of the stream flow data comes from stations operated by the USGS (United States Geological Survey). Snow pack data is measured at stations operated by the NRCS (Natural Resources Conservation Service).
A: Most data is gathered once every hour. Some data, such as images from the cameras, are collected as often as once every 10 minutes.
A: Each station is equiped with sensors that measure various parameters (i.e. voltage, river flow, temperature). The data is recorded by a commercial datalogger (CR-10 from Campbell Scientific). Once an hour real-time data is transferred to the datahut via VHF radio, 900 MHz spread spectrum radio, over the Internet, via land-line telephone, or by cell-phone, where it is stored in a database. Each time you click on the web page, the code for the page instructs the web server to go and find the most recent data. Your browser then displays all the information on a web page.
The USGS stream flow data travels via satelite link and the NRCS SNOTEL data uses a radio transmission system called "meteorburst".
A: The canal gates can be programmed to maintain a certain flow out of the reservoir. In addition, the "station" is equiped with a VHS radio and telephone equipment that is used to transmit the data to the server. These, however, are two-way devices, meaning that with the correct "login" someone can call the station and reset the parameters, such as the gate height or river flow. The sensors tell the program when the gate is meeting the new specifications.
A: The web server is an Apache-powered web server, run on a Red-Hat Linux system. In addition, the server stores data in a MySQL database. The code for the sites is written using mostly PHP mixed with HTML. Some features are made available using scripts written in Perl.
A: The site is constantly updating, adding, and changing. As technology improves and the users needs change, the site evolves to try and meet these needs. Sometimes files get re-named and/or moved. If you are having trouble finding a page try using the "SiteMap" under the "About" link at the top of each page. If you still can't find the page you are looking for, email the webmaster<bret@stoneflytech.com>.
A: Our system description gives a great overview of the county and how the site works. It gives more detailed explanations of the system components and where the site is looking to go in the future.
A: If you find an error on the site or a page that is not working, PLEASE report it to <bret@stoneflytech.com>.