THE INNOVATORS
A Doppler insert sensor installed in a pipe.
I
Developing Flow Solutions at In-Situ
n-Situ has been providing in-field water level monitoring, flow monitoring, and water quality solutions for four decades. In recent years, In-Situ has expanded from its traditional focus on water level through ambitious R&D work and strategic acquisitions, moving into flow and water quality monitoring and process. In 2017, In-Situ acquired the Australian company MACE, which manufactures ultrasonic flow meters, data loggers, and controllers. In this interview, Mathew Campbell, the Australia-based application development manager for flow at In-Situ, and Helen Taylor, In-Situ’s content manager, speak with Municipal Water Leader Editor-in-Chief Kris Polly about the company’s flow monitoring systems and how they are helping irrigators and wastewater managers across the globe.
PHOTO COURTESY OF IN-SITU.
Kris Polly: Would you please tell us about your background, Dr. Campbell, and how you came to be in your current position? Mathew Campbell: My father Lawrence started the company MACE in Sydney, Australia, in 1968. I was born into the business, but once I left high school, I basically decided I did not want anything to do with the family business. I went to university and completed undergraduate studies in agriculture and environmental science. In 1993, I received a PhD in environmental science with a focus on agriculture, dealing with cotton and other irrigated crops. Before I went to university, MACE had been primarily
involved with data logging—taking sensors from other companies and providing a data logger, along with some pretty cool interface technology, including voice telemetry and early modem technology. During the early 1980s, we had a bad problem in Australia with sewer overflows, which could happen in the middle of the Sydney’s main street. Of course, as soon as the general public saw raw effluent flowing down the gutters, it became a political football, and the government decided to spend money on a solution. MACE received funding from government-owned water authorities to develop a better way of measuring sewer flows and developed the Doppler ultrasonic velocity sensor. One of the problems in irrigation is measuring the water that is used to irrigate crops. Historically, that was done with mechanical meters with a little propeller that moved inside the pipe. Those irrigation pipes can be quite large—anywhere from 6 to 90 inches in diameter—and are full of water. If you put a propeller in a pipe in the field, it inevitably gets clogged up with leaves, grass, and mud. With my research into irrigated cotton, I saw a market in agriculture for our Doppler sensor, and once I was finished with my studies, I decided it was a good time to come back to the family business. We moved into agriculture in a big way from the mid-1990s, around the time I came back. While we maintain our wastewater business, I also work with farmers to develop products that work in the field. It’s one thing to have a sensor that measures flow, but it’s another thing to have an instrument that you can MUNICIPALWATERLEADER.COM
| 35
