Abstract
This case study explores the successful application of the HONDE handheld radar flow meter in a sewage pipeline network census and diagnostic project in a major Indian city. Faced with water environment challenges brought about by rapid urbanization, the municipal department adopted HONDE’s advanced handheld radar flow measurement technology to efficiently and accurately complete flow monitoring of complex drainage systems. This provided critical data support for pipeline network diagnosis, capacity assessment, and overflow early warning, significantly improving the efficiency and scientific approach of municipal water management.
1. Project Background
Many major cities in India are undergoing unprecedented urbanization, placing enormous pressure on existing municipal drainage systems. Aging infrastructure, data gaps, illegal connections, and combined sewer overflows have led to low efficiency in wastewater treatment plant operations, with frequent incidents of waterlogging and sewage overflow during the rainy season.
To address this, a municipal corporation in a large city launched an ambitious “Smart Drainage System Diagnostic Project.” One of the core challenges was: How to quickly, accurately, and cost-effectively obtain real-time flow data from hundreds of key manholes and open channels across the city to build a hydraulic model of the entire pipeline network?
Traditional measurement methods (such as contact-based flow meters) posed drawbacks including complex installation, high risks for operators, and limited data, making them unsuitable for large-scale census requirements.
2. Technical Solution: HONDE Handheld Radar Flow Meter
After extensive evaluation, the project team selected the HONDE series handheld radar flow meter as the core measurement tool. This brand was chosen for its high reliability in complex working conditions, excellent localized technical support, and comprehensive training services.
How the Device Works:
The device uses non-contact Doppler radar technology. Operators simply aim the device at the water surface in a manhole or open channel, and it measures the surface flow velocity via radar beam reflection. Simultaneously, the built-in laser rangefinder accurately measures the water level (liquid level). By inputting pre-surveyed pipe or channel cross-sectional dimensions (e.g., pipe diameter, channel width), the device’s built-in algorithm automatically calculates and displays instantaneous flow rate and cumulative flow volume.
Why HONDE Was Chosen:
Safety and Efficiency: Fully non-contact measurement eliminates the need for operators to enter manholes or contact sewage, greatly reducing exposure to toxic gases and biological hazards, and ensuring compliance with safety standards.
- Rapid Deployment and Ruggedness: Operable by a single person, each measurement point takes only minutes. HONDE devices feature an IP67 protection rating, making them suitable for India’s hot, dusty, and humid field conditions with high stability.
- High Accuracy and Intelligent Algorithms: HONDE’s advanced signal processing algorithms effectively compensate for interference from surface turbulence and complex flows. The continuous measurement mode provides average flow data over a period, ensuring widely recognized data reliability.
- Data Integration and Localized App: The device is equipped with GPS, Bluetooth, and the HONDE AquaSurvey Pro mobile app. It automatically records geographic coordinates, timestamps, flow rate, velocity, water level, and other data, generating standardized reports that meet local requirements and seamlessly integrate with GIS and hydraulic modeling software.
- Strong Adaptability: Suitable for both full-pipe and non-full-pipe flow measurements, applicable to various scenarios from small sewage pipes to large open channels.
3. Implementation Process
- Planning and Site Selection: Based on incomplete existing pipeline network maps, the project team selected 500 representative key monitoring points (including main pipes, branch lines, pump station inlets, and wastewater treatment plant intakes).
- On-Site Training and Support: HONDE technical engineers provided in-depth theoretical and practical training for local municipal staff and supplied Hindi operation manuals. In the initial project phase, the HONDE team accompanied field measurements to ensure proper technology implementation.
- Data Collection: Technicians worked in pairs using HONDE devices at various monitoring points. For sewer manholes, they opened the covers, set up the device on a tripod above the manhole, and aimed the sensor vertically at the water flow. For open channels, measurements were taken from the bank. Multiple measurements were taken at each point to ensure data stability, and site photos were captured.
- Data Analysis and Modeling: All measurement data was synchronized to a central database via the HONDE cloud platform. Water engineers used this data to:
- Identify Anomalies: Detect abnormal pipeline sections, such as excessively high minimum nighttime flow (indicating groundwater infiltration or illegal connections) or lower-than-expected daytime peak flow (indicating blockages).
- Calibrate Hydraulic Models: Use measured flow and water level data as key inputs to calibrate and validate computer hydraulic models of the urban drainage system, improving model prediction accuracy.
- Assess System Capacity: Identify bottleneck sections in the system, providing precise investment justification for subsequent pipeline network upgrades and renovations.
4. Project Results and Value
- Improved Efficiency: Completed in 3 months what would have taken 12-18 months using traditional methods, reducing the project timeline by over 75%.
- Cost Savings: Avoided the high costs of building numerous fixed monitoring stations and significantly reduced labor costs.
- Data-Driven Decision Making: Obtained unprecedented high-precision, high-density flow data sets, shifting the municipal department’s decision-making from “experience-based” to “data-based.”
- Successfully identified 35 severe groundwater infiltration points and 12 illegal industrial wastewater discharge points.
- Accurately predicted overflow risks at 8 flood-prone points during the rainy season and developed targeted drainage solutions.
- Enhanced Safety and Sustainability: Ensured the safety of measurement personnel, reducing occupational hazards in municipal projects. By optimizing pipeline network operation, reduced the energy consumption of wastewater treatment plants and minimized untreated sewage overflows, positively impacting the environment.
- Local Capacity Building: Through HONDE’s training, the municipal department established its own professional measurement team, capable of long-term system monitoring and maintenance.
5. Conclusion and Outlook
The successful application of the HONDE handheld radar flow meter in this Indian municipal project demonstrates how innovative technology can solve classic infrastructure management challenges in developing countries. It is not just a measurement tool but a key catalyst driving municipal water management toward digitalization, intelligence, and precision.
Future plans for the municipal department include:
- Combining regular surveys using HONDE handheld devices with HONDE fixed online radar flow meters at a few critical points to build a long-term monitoring network.
- Integrating flow data with rainfall data, pump operation data, and other information to develop an urban drainage smart early warning system using HONDE’s data interfaces.
- Extending this successful model to other areas of the city and surrounding satellite towns to comprehensively enhance regional water environment management capabilities.
- Complete set of servers and software wireless module, supports RS485 GPRS /4g/WIFI/LORA/LORAWANFor more radar flow sensor information,
please contact Honde Technology Co., LTD.
Email: info@hondetech.com
Company website: www.hondetechco.com
Tel: +86-15210548582
Post time: Sep-15-2025