Salt River Project (SRP) and Northern Arizona University (NAU) are installing new wireless moisture sensors designed by a company called Growvera to improve how wildfire risk is monitored in the Tonto National Forest. This is the first utility installation of this technology in the country.
Fuel moisture is one of the most important indicators of wildfire danger, but today it is typically measured through manual field sampling, which is infrequent and labor-intensive. This pilot project, funded by SRP's Innovation and Development Program, is testing new technology from Growvera that enables continuous, real-time tracking of forest fuel and soil moisture conditions.
About 200 sensors will be installed on six sites around the Tonto National Forest in the SRP watershed and power infrastructure corridor.
SRP's Innovation and Development Program funds research projects with Arizona universities, research organizations and technology companies on a variety of topics important to SRP.
This research will help protect water supplies by improving understanding of wildfire risk in SRP's watershed. After a wildfire, burned trees and damaged soil can reduce how well the land absorbs and stores water, increasing erosion and limiting the amount of water that flows into reservoirs.
It will also support power reliability, as many of SRP's transmission and telecommunication towers run through forested areas. By improving early awareness of wildfire conditions, SRP can better plan and respond to protect critical infrastructure.
SRP is a community-based, not-for-profit public power utility and the largest electricity provider in the greater Phoenix metropolitan area, serving about 1.2 million customers. SRP provides water to about 2.5 million Valley residents, delivering 260 billion gallons of water (800,000 acre-feet) each year, and manages a 13,000-square-mile watershed that includes an extensive system of reservoirs, wells, irrigation laterals, and 131 miles of canals.
