Environmental monitoring

Environmental monitoring

Water monitoring system and weather station

An industry standard water monitoring system and weather station is located on Farrington Pier. Data from remote loggers and associated infrastructure is frequently collected at set time intervals, recorded and stored on the HOBOlink system. Water parameters that are recorded include pH, electrical conductivity, temperature, dissolved oxygen and turbidity. Weather parameters that are recorded include temperature, rainfall, barometric pressure, wind speed/direction, relative humidity and lux.

environmental monitoring

HOBOlink is a web-enabled software designed for use with HOBO data loggers and Field Monitoring Systems. The HOBOlink software platform makes it easy to access and view current and historical data, alarm notifications and relay activations, and manage data remotely. All the data collected from the JMR water system and weather station can be viewed on the HOBOlink platform. There are 4 options to look at the data collected;

  1. JMR Water Station Data:
    On this site, you can view data from all of the measured parameters from the lake through graphs. You can select a date range to view the data. You can hover over the graphs to see exact values and times of readings.
  2. JMR Weather Station Data:
    On this site, you can view data from all of the measured parameters from the weather through through graphs and charts. You can select a date range to view the data. You can hover over the graphs to see exact values and times of readings.
  3. Latest Water and Weather Data:
    On this site you can see the latest sensor readings recorded from the water and weather station. You can see the latest reading and the time it was taken.
  4. Archive:
    On this site you can view historical data from the water and weather station through spreadsheets. All spreadsheets are titled with the date range they were captured.
    The Environmental Monitoring system was physically upgraded in July 2023 and then the software platform was upgraded in February 2025. As a result, the date range to view on the current HOBOlink sites is limited, therefore if you are after older data, you should be able to find it here. Please note that each upgrade resulted in different export formats and layouts so the spreadsheets overtime will present slightly differently, including date formats and sensor  sequence.

An important note about the water sampling data

Water sampling in the lake occurs every 5minutes and sampling is periodically switched every 2hrs (approximately) between surface water and deep water, this switching is reflected in the 'Water Sampling' readings. A reading of around 20mA (>18.5mA) means water has been sampled from near the surface of the lake and a reading of around 0mA  (<1mA) means deep water has been sampled, around 30cm from the bottom of the lake.

What does this mean for the graphs
The water parameter graphs do not separate these into 2 readings into separate lines, rather, it puts them together in the graph as a single line. It is possible to see if a reading is from the surface of the water or from deep water by looking at the date, times and reading on the 'Water Sampling' graph and comparing or overlaying this with the parameter graph of interest.

The 2 graphs below were captured at the same date and time;

What does this mean for exported raw data
If you want to graph the data yourself or go back further in time than the graphs allow, you can export the raw data yourself using the Archive site. The data can be downloaded as an excel file. Some of the older data is also available in csv file format.

For water only data, the spreadsheet makes it is easier to see what readings have been taken from the surface of the water and which ones have been taken from the deep water. The third column of the spreadsheet is the current (water sampling) reading and the value tells you whether deep water or surface water has been sampled.

You will notice another column called 'System Flow' which has mA readings very similar to the surface readings. This column just tell  us that there is water running through the system and the mA reading shouldn't fluctuate much or often. If it does, this would indicate flow has been obstructed or stopped for some reason and would warrant investigation.

Now to the good stuff

Pick a site and check it out!

1. JMR Water Station View lake data from past day, past week and beyond click here.
2. JMR Weather Station View weather data from past day, past week and beyond click here.
3. Latest Water and Weather Readings View all of the latest sensor readings from the water and weather station click here.
4. Archive View historical data click here.

Just a note: The system isn't perfect and you may see inconsistencies in the data from time to time. Sometimes data might be missing or sensors appear to be stuck on a value for longer than expected. This can be due to a number of things; the system might be getting serviced, sometimes sensors fail and need replacing, sometimes the power goes out and sometimes HOBOlink itself goes down. We do our best to keep the system running as smoothly as possible.

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