Clemson University and the South Carolina Office of Resilience recently unveiled a new system to monitor water levels and alert the public to flood events.
The BridgeBox system consists of sensor boxes installed on bridges that measure water levels every six minutes. The real-time information gathered by the devices can help determine flood impacts from extreme weather events and water volume measurements during droughts.
“This system is designed to enable the deployment of thousands of water-level sensors to support the critical (U.S. Geological Survey) gauge network,” said Christopher Post, a Clemson professor of environmental information science. “The sensors will provide publicly available information on flood events and water levels to inform environmental conservation and economic development.”
The new sensor system was developed as part of Clemson’s Intelligent River program. Post invented the water-sensor system with Syed Mohammad Ovais, Intelligent River’s head engineer.
A pilot project for the BridgeBox system is underway. A total of 125 sensors are being installed in the Upper Savannah and Saluda watersheds from May through December 2025.
SCOR provided a $300,0000 grant to the project. Bryan Rabon, SCOR’s data coordination manager, said the BridgeBox project helps address the need for improved, high-resolution hydrological monitoring across watersheds.
“By deploying BridgeBox units, this initiative enhances the spatial density of water-level data, supplementing the existing USGS network and directly supporting the recommendation for expanding data to inform modeling and resilience planning,” Rabon said.
SCOR uses data enhancement to minimize the impact of disasters on communities in South Carolina. The office’s 2023 Strategic Statewide Resilience and Risk Reduction Plan recommended investments in information infrastructure like the BridgeBox system that can improve flood forecasting, flood recurrence estimates and water planning.
For more information, visit intelligentriver.org.
