Design, Development, and Evaluation of a Tilt and

Soil Moisture Sensor Network for Slope Monitoring

Applications
Rosanno JC de Dios, Jason Enriquez, Francis Gabriel Victorino Earl Anthony Mendoza, Marc Caesar Talampas,
Joel Joseph Marciano Jr.
Electrical and Electronics Engineering Institute
University of the Philippines Diliman
Quezon City, Philippines
Email: marct@eee.upd.edu.ph

Abstract— A sensor network consisting of sensors for slope project that aims to develop a cost-effective system for
deformation and soil-water content was designed, developed, and measuring the physical parameters that may indicate
evaluated in a miniature slope model. The sensor network is impending slope failure.
buried vertically underground, and is composed of pipe segments
to form a column. Each segment contains a tri-axial
accelerometer for tilt measurements and capacitive-type sensors
for soil moisture measurement. Measurements taken in each
segment is accessed via Controller Area Network (CAN). The
CAN master node located at the top of the column transfers the
collected data from the slave nodes wirelessly to a base station via
a WiFi link. Data was collected, stored, processed and displayed
via the Python-based GUI on the base station. The entire system
was tested and evaluated on a small-scale slope model. A slope
failure was induced and the system was demonstrated to ably
measure the inclination and soil moisture content throughout the
landslide event.

Keywords-sensor networks; slope monitoring; early warning

systems
Figure 1. System block diagram

I. INTRODUCTION In order to observe slow movements such as slope creep,

Approximately one-third of the land area of the Philippines
consists of steep mountains and slopes making it prone to
landslides that result in significant loss of life and property.
While the mechanisms underlying landslides are fairly under-
stood, actual prediction or forecasting of landslides has been
hindered by the lack of field measurements over large
temporal and spatial scales. In order for scientists and
engineers to make accurate and timely landslide forecasts,
critical data must be made available in real time.
In the Philippine setting, slope deformation, excessive rain-
fall, and water seepage are said to be major factors in slope
failures[1]. Thus, there is a need to conduct further study
relating slope deformation to soil moisture content and pore
water pressure, factors directly affected by rainfall and water
seepage. This paper presents the current status of a research
This work is in collaboration with the National Institute of Geological
Sciences, and is funded by the University of the Philippines and the Philippine
Council for Advanced Science and Technology Research and Development -
Department of Science and Technology. The authors would also like to give
thanks to the UP Engineering Research and Development Foundation, Inc.
highly sensitive sensors are necessary. These sensors are
typically expensive due to their high sensitivity and precision.
Aside from slope creep, there is also a need to observe slide
and fall movements which are much faster, with a higher
acceleration and elongation. Arnhardt et.al. [2] summarized
possible landslide movements and the capabilities of different
sensors to detect these movements. They concluded that ac-
accelerometers are cost-effective means of detecting both
creep and slide and fall movements, compared to more
expensive displacement transducers and angle sensors [2].
Their work justifies the use of accelerometers for cost-
effective soil mass movement detection.
Abdoun et.al. developed the ShapeAccelArray, a micro-
electromechanical system (MEMS) accelerometer array that is
designed to monitor land displacement and soil acceleration
[3]. The array segments were interconnected with flexible
joints in order for the instrument to be able to faithfully follow
soil movement. The design of the sensor array column is
shown in Figure 2. The ShapeAccelArray lacks integrated soil
moisture sensors, which can provide additional data that

978-1-4244-4547-9/09/$26.00 ©2009 IEEE TENCON 2009

1
relates slope movement to soil moisture content at different
depths.
Figure 2. Design of the ShapeAccel array
In slope stability monitoring, it is essential not only to have
knowledge on slope deformation or movement but also on soil
moisture content. Some methods such as calculation of
precipitation (rainfall density) are normally done to evaluate
occurrence of landslides. However, such a method offers little
precision since landslides are more directly related to water
content of soil rather than rainfall density [4]. The accuracy of
a landslide warning system can be improved if sensors are
installed to measure water content of soil in different depths
and locations.
Wobschall[5] describes an approach to minimize
measurement sensitivity due to soil type. Both field
implantable and laboratory sensors were developed.
Measurements were facilitated using a high frequency (31
MHz) Colpitts oscillator. The change in dielectric constant
reflects a change in capacitance; which in turn creates a shift
in the frequency of the signal generated by the oscillator. The
soil’s dielectric constant is composed both of a real (dielectric
property) and imaginary part (conductivity). Using high
frequencies for the oscillator (above 10MHz) is said to
minimize conductivity effects to dielectric measurements [6].
While conductivity can also be an indicator of moisture
content, the minimization of its effects is desired because it is
a soil type dependent parameter. A frequency at this range is
advantageous to use for our system to deal with the soil type
sensitivity issue.
The capacitive sensor is coupled to the oscillator circuit via
a capacitor T network. This type of coupling is noted to
minimize also the effects of soil conductivity to
measurements.[5] The sensor is tested extensively in a soils
laboratory and in four field locations. Results showed that
there are only small variations in the calibration curves of
different soils at low moisture measurements (where
conductance is low). However, soils with high conductivity
properties such as clay appear to need specific calibration
especially at high moisture measurements (where conductance
is high). A more recent work of Wobschall together with
Lakshmanan[7] also implements the coupling capacitor T
2
network. Figure 3 shows the T-coupling network as part of
their system. Switches were used at the sensor side to fix the
problem of frequency drift with time. A standard value
capacitor is alternately switched in order to normalize
measured values.
Figure 3. Capacitor T-coupling network
Instead of using LC oscillators, their system made use of
the microcontroller’s RC oscillator for simplicity. A PIC
microcontroller which has oscillators capable of working at
high enough frequencies (above 10 MHz) was used. A PIC
microcontroller is also used in our system, taking control of
both tilt and soil moisture content measurements at various
depths underground. An added feature is seen in their system,
allowing wireless data collection via radio communication
over a range of 30 to 100 meters. Our system also allows data
collection in the same manner except that it uses a WiFi
module to transmit data to a base station.
The conditions under which their system has been tested are
not explicitly stated. Their results showed that their sensor is
able to take measurements over a wide range of 0 to 45%
(water in soil by volume) with good reproducibility. It has
been further stated that soil specific calibration are still needed
to achieve such good results.
II. METHODOLOGY
A. Soil Moisture Sensor
Figure 4 shows the block diagram of the soil moisture
sensor design. A capacitor type sensor is used and is
connected to an oscillator circuit. The frequency of the output
signal is then measured using a microcontroller.
Figure 4. Soil moisture sensor design
The physical design with the corresponding dimensions of
the soil moisture sensor is described in Figure 5. The
capacitance sensor is located at the middle section of each
segment. The sensor was constructed using aluminum duct
tape, flat antenna wires for stray capacitance minimization,
and acrylic epoxy paint for insulation. These materials were
selected to minimize the cost of sensor fabrication.
Characterization is done using three soil types, namely
Ottawa sand, silty clay (Diliman campus soil), and Kaolinite
clay. Since the degree of compaction has effects on the
measured frequency shifts, every test is done using a constant
TENCON 2009
in situ dry density, as shown in Figure 6. Dry density is
defined in soil mechanics as the density of soil at zero
saturation level (driest condition). Figure 7 summarizes the
characterization results.
Figure 5. Soil moisture sensor dimensions
Figure 6. Soil moisture sensor characterization setup
Figure 7. Average characterization curves for different soil types
In all of the tests, it is evident that small errors (~2%
average error) in compaction affected the sensor’s
measurement reproducibility. There is still a need for soil
specific calibration because of the varying range of soil
densities for each soil type. From Figure 7, a general trend is
observed that the sensor becomes less sensitive at higher
saturation levels. As a specific soil type is compacted to a
higher density, higher measurements are acquired. The sensor
resolution was found to be 1% saturation change. The range of
the sensor was found to be 0 to 100% saturation, except for
3
sand. The response time of the sensor was measured to be
0.8732 seconds.
B. Tilt Sensor
The tilt of each segment of the sensor column was
measured to detect soil movement. The tilt of each segment
was measured using an ST Microelectronics LIS3LV02DL tri-
axis digital accelerometer. Each digital accelerometer is
connected to a single microcontroller through the 4-wire SPI
interface.
By measuring the amount of static acceleration due to gravity
felt by a single accelerometer axis, we can find the angle of
the segment with respect to the vertical. As shown in Figure 8,
we can solve the angle between the longitudinal axis of the
segment and actual gravity vector as:
θ = sin−1 accelerometer data * 180° (1)
gravity π
Two accelerometer axes are needed to reconstruct the tilt of
the segment in 3D. These two axes are perpendicular to each
other and to the gravity vector.
Figure 8. Tilt calculation based on accelerometer data
C. Sensor Network Communications
Soil moisture and acceleration data was retrieved from
different column segments through the CAN protocol. A 28-
pin microcontroller with a built-in CAN controller, Microchip
PIC18F2585 was used. The Microchip MCP2551 CAN
transceiver was also used to interface the microcontroller to
the CAN bus. Figure 9 shows a block diagram of the
networked mircontrontrollers. One soil moisture sensor and
one accelerometer were attached to a slave microcontroller for
local data gathering. Slave micrcontrollers are connected to
the master microcontroller through a 4-wire bus that contains
the power and CAN signals. The master node was connected
to a Lantronix WiFi module for wireless connectivity.
D. Sensor Column Packaging
Each sensor node is fitted into a PVC pipe segment. The
joints connecting one PVC segment to another should be
flexible enough to allow the entire column to follow the
TENCON 2009
movement of the soil mass, yet strong enough to enable
multiple experiments on the small-scale model. In a real-
world deployment of the sensor network, it is expected that the
column will no longer be removed for reuse once it has been
installed. The column was waterproofed to prevent water
seepage that may damage the electronics inside it.
The prototype sensor network for the small-scale model
consists of 8 slave nodes that are inserted into 8 PVC pipes
with capacitive sensors. The joints are applied with sealant to
prevent water seepage. The slave nodes’ axis orientations are
aligned by reading the accelerometer data while creating the
joints and adjusting until the acceleration reading of the two
segments are the same. Figure 10 shows the sensor column
and its dimensions.
Figure 9. CAN bus setup
Figure 10. Tilt and soil moisture sensor column dimensions
E. Graphical User Interface
A screenshot of the custom graphical user interface is seen in
Figure 11. The GUI plots sensor column displacement, soil
moisture data and PWP data using 3 operation modes: real-
time single plotting, real-time cumulative displacement
plotting and plotting from a database. In real-time single
plotting, the GUI waits for data from the sensors, segments
them when they arrive, stores them in a MySQL database and
plots the latest data. Real-time cumulative displacement
4
plotting is similar to single plotting but the five most recent
displacement plots are the ones displayed. A screen shot of a
real-time cumulative displacement plot is seen on Figure 11.
Plotting from a database is done by having the user specify a
date and time duration from which data samples are plotted.
Figure 11. Graphical User Interface (GUI) screenshot
III. SMALL-SCALE SLOPE MODEL TEST
The sensor network was tested on a small-scale slope model
implemented inside a box. The box has two chambers at the
sides, which allow water to seep into and out of the soil placed
in the middle chamber. These water reservoirs are separated
from the soil by a porous geotextile material. The sensors are
placed at the top of the slope to cover a large area of the soil.
A video camera is also placed two meters away from the box
to observe the water seepage and the soil movement, and to be
able to correlate and compare the visual data with the sensors.
The Z-axis of the tilt sensor was situated to be in the direction
of the landslide. Figure 12 shows the experiment setup.
Figure 12. Small-scale model setup
The test was started by turning on the sensors and
increasing the water level inside the left chamber at a constant
rate. The sensor data was sampled at 1Hz. After some time,
the bottom of the slope was observed to be saturated with
water, thus, the water level was decreased to avoid an
immediate landslide and to simulate variable soil moisture
values throughout the slope. As soon as the water level
TENCON 2009
decreased to an appropriate value, it was increased again until used in reconstructing tilt, it will represent the lateral
a landslide occurred. Table I shows the summary of events for acceleration of the column in the direction of the landslide as a
the whole experiment. tilt. It is safe to note that the sensor, as presently implemented,
is better suited to detecting creep movements before landslide
TABLE I. EVENTS AND MILESTONES FOR THE LANDSLIDE EXPERIMENT
rather than the actual landslide itself.
Water
Time Notes
level
14:22:31 Start of experiment. Water level
0m
starts to increase.
14:40:34 Water seepage reaches 0.2m in
0.1m
height, 0.7m in length.
15:33:13 Saturation of the slope’s toe.
Water reaches the other end of
0.75m
the box. Start of water level
decrease.
15:41:45 Water at the other end reaches
0.5m
0.1m
15:59:10 0.2m Water level is increased again.
16:19:04 0.81m Start of landslide event. Figure 14. Sensor column movement during induced landslide
16:19:09 0.81m End of landslide event.
To compare the actual tilt of the sensor column segments to
the sensor readings, the simulated landslide was excavated
Figure 13 shows the raw data acquired for approximately
preserving the position of the sensor column. Figure 15 shows
2.5 hrs, in which the sensor segments are deployed in the
that the tilt sensor data is in agreement with the actual tilt of
landslide box. These frequency shifts can be converted into
the sensor column.
saturation level readings using the characterization curve for
sand presented in 7. The seven sensors are arranged having S1
at the topmost part and S7 at the bottommost part. The visual
data from the landslide box (water height) agrees with the plot
presented in Figure 13. It is of note that the landslide occurred
at the point where there was a sharp increase in measured
saturation level at the location of sensor S3.

Figure 15. Tilt sensor data vs. visual data

Figure 13. Landslide box soil moisture sensor deployment data
The Z-axis tilt sensor data from the 4-second duration of
failure were reconstructed to determine the movement of the
column during landslide. Shown in Figure 14 are the angles in
degrees of the segments with respect to the perpendicular and
the progression of column during failure.
One drawback to using the MEMS accelerometer as a tilt
sensor is that it does not distinguish between static and
dynamic acceleration. Since the static acceleration is the data
Using the tilt data from the sensors, we can estimate the
location of the slip surface of the landslide based on the
displacements as well as the locations of the moved segments.
The slip surface on a landslide separates the sliding part of the
slope from the static part. Deploying a greater number of tilt
sensors on the slope can improve the estimation of the slip
surface.
IV. CONCLUSIONS
A sensor network for measuring slope tilt and soil moisture
content was designed, developed and tested in a landslide
simulation box. The system was demonstrated to measure
slope movement through tilt sensing and soil moisture content
through a capacitive sensor.

TENCON 2009
5
 The soil moisture sensor can measure 0-100% saturation
levels at a response time of 0.87 seconds. Tests with three
different soil types resulted in different characterization curves
due to the varying range of compaction. The degree of
compaction of soil also affected the reproducibility of
measurements. The sensitivity of the soil moisture sensor was
observed to decrease for increasing levels of saturation for all
soil types tested.
By measuring the static acceleration due to gravity, the tri-
axial accelerometers can be used to accurately reconstruct the
angles of tilt of a segment in the sensor column. Tests
performed with the tilt sensors deployed on the small-scale
slope model showed that the visual tilt data and the measured
tilt data are in agreement. The landslide slip surface location
can be estimated by identifying the segment which moved
much farther from its original position than the other segments
in the column.
A GUI was developed for visualizing the slope movement
and soil moisture data.
V. FUTURE WORK AND RECOMMENDATIONS
A real-world deployment of the sensor network is
scheduled for January 2010. The sensor network will be
installed on a slope at the University of the Philippines
Visayas Campus, Iloilo, Philippines. The sensor network is
currently being refined further. A bootloader is being
developed to allow the programming of each microcontroller
in the network through the CAN bus. The addition of this
feature will allow field programmability without the need to
dismantle the network. The power consumption of the entire
6
sensor network is being optimized to allow for long-term field
deployments.
Since landslides typically take years to develop, it is
necessary that the sensor network lifetime can last for a
sufficiently long time. Alternative power sources such as solar
and wind can be added to augment the sensor network’s power
supply. Additional experiments on the small-scale model are
also currently being conducted with different soil types and
soil moisture conditions.
REFERENCES
[1] L. Naranjo, ”Connecting Rainfall and Landslides”, NASA Earth Science
Data and Services, September 4, 2007. [Online] Available:
http://nasadaacs.eos.nasa.gov/articles/2007/2007_landslides.html
[Accessed November 22, 2008].
[2] Arnhardt C., Asch, K., Azzam, R., Bill, R., Fernandez-Stegger, T.M.,
Hornfeld, S., Kallash, A., Niemeyer, F., Ritter, H., Toloczyki, M.,
Walter, K. “Sensor-Based Landslide Early Warning System- SLEWS“,
Geotechnologien Science Report, Early Warning Systems in Earth
Management. pp.75-78, October 2007.
[3] Abdoun, T., Danisch, L., Ha D., “Advanced Sensing for Real-Time
Monitoring of Geotechnical Systems“, Proceedings of Sessions of the
Geo-Frontiers Congress, 2005.
[4] Chuang, H., “United States Patent for an Apparatus for Detecting
Saturation of Water in Soil”, Patent No.: US 6601440 B1., August 2003.
[5] Wobschall, D., “A Frequency Shift Dielectric Soil Moisture Sensor”,
IEEE Transactions on Geoscience Electronics. Vol. GE-16, No. 2, pp.
112 - 118, April 1978.
[6] Johnson, P., Thiel, D., James, D., “Contributions to the Measured
Capacitance by the Dielectric Properties of Water in Insulated Electrode
Soil Moisture Sensors”, Proceedings of IEEE Sensors, 2002, pp.495-
498.
[7] Wobschall, D., Lakshmanan, D., “Wireless Soil Moisture Sensor Based
on Fringing Capacitance”, Proceedings of IEEE Sensors, 2005, pp.4.
TENCON 2009