Flood sensor by-product of Gigatown

Technology developed in Dunedin to help address flooding issues in the city is gaining international attention.

It all stems from the city winning the Gigatown competition in 2014 and the ideas originating from the win.

Local tech company Tussock Innovation became involved in the ng Connect programme provided by Chorus and Nokia.

Businesses had been invited to propose ideas about challenges the city faced and ``and how we could come up with some really cool technology to take Dunedin to the world and show we're creative'', Tussock Innovation director Jesse Teat said.

It coincided with the flooding in South Dunedin in 2015, something that was relevant for those attending the sessions.

When it came to voting on the ideas people had, solving that issue ``really rang home with everyone'', he said.

It was then that Tussock Innovation suggested it could put together a sensor or prototype to help solve the city's stormwater issues. With a group of other companies, the team started on the project.

Tussock Innovation designed a sensor which was put in a stormwater drain and used to monitor the levels of water and silt build-up. The data was stored on a website.

Two years later, having spent thousands of hours developing prototypes of its Swiftlet platform, the potential of its concept was recognised in December, when it received a GigStart award.

It was hoped to expand the project past the pilot scheme stage to all relevant mud tanks in the South Dunedin area, so a greater understanding could be gained about what happened regarding stormwater and whether drains had to be cleaned more frequently.

Nokia had demonstrated the technology to a Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in February and there had been excellent feedback, and there had been discussions about taking it globally.

``It's pretty exciting.

``We're going through the process trying to find out how
we do that and where we take it,'' Mr Teat said.

Tussock Innovation was in discussions with various companies, negotiating ways it could use its equipment with their products.

There were other possible uses for the product and there was interest in using it on the likes of remote water tank systems, and for effluent pumps.

``When you're doing things, you don't really know what other people may use them for in the future. It's really interesting to see things pop up,'' he said.

Other councils had expressed interest in the technology, including Auckland and one offshore, and Mr Teat believed it had the scope ``to grow well''.

Acknowledging it was exciting, he said he was also nervous and a little scared.

``We're taking a leap of faith but we're also confident in our skills,'' he said.