Patent ID: 8692668

Claim:
A wireless node for monitoring landslide conditions comprising: at least one tubular probe body deployed in a borehole in a landslide prone area and anchored to rock below soil; multiple sensors carried by and deployed within and outside of the tubular probe body for measuring hydrologic saturation and pressure at three or more distinct levels of soil above the rock, including at least moisture sensors embedded in soil walls of the borehole at each one of the levels for detecting soil saturation; a power source; a data acquisition board in communication with all of the sensors; and a wireless transceiver in communication with the data acquisition board and accessible to a local area wireless network (LAWN), which is in turn accessible to a wide area wireless network (WAWN); wherein geologic and hydrologic data, including at least soil saturation, of at least the three separate layers of soil above the anchor rock is collected in real time from the sensors at each soil layer, the data qualified against separate threshold readings set for each of the layers, and alerts are provided at three or more stages, graduating levels of alerts as a threshold at each layer is met culminating in a warning of an impending landslide.