DESIGN AND FABRICATION OF AN IoT-BASED RAIN AMOUNT MEASUREMENT

Abstract

Rainfall monitoring is essential for effective water resource management; however, traditional manual methods often result in inaccurate measurements, delayed responses, and poor recordkeeping. This project presents an IoT-based rain amount measuring and monitoring system that automatically detects rainfall, measures water level, stores data in the cloud, and displays real-time information through a mobile application. The system integrates a rain sensor and an HC-SR04 ultrasonic sensor, controlled by an ESP-8266 NodeMCU with Wi-Fi connectivity, to transmit data to a Firebase real-time database. An Android application developed using MIT App Inventor enables users to monitor live rainfall data and access historical records. A theoretical 9:1 area ratio between the rain capture surface and reservoir was applied, and calibration experiments improved accuracy by reducing measurement error to approximately 3%. Overall, the system provides a low-cost, reliable, and real-time solution for automated rainfall monitoring suitable for domestic and small-scale industrial applications.