Smart Manhole Monitoring and Alert System for Urban Infrastructure

Abstract

Water drainage systems underground have a significantcontributiontomaketourbansanitationandwater management efficiency. Manholes provide access to underground sewerpipelinesforinspectionand maintenance purposes.Inmanyurbanareas,however,manholemonitoring isstillconductedmanually,whichisverytimeconsumingand canputworkersatrisk fromexposuretoharmfulgases,water overflow and unsafe conditions. In order to solve the above problems, this paper proposes an IoT-based Smart Manhole Monitoring and Alert System for monitoring underground drainage infrastructure in real-time. The proposed system is based on a compact DOT PCB platform which integrates multiple environmental sensors with an ESP32 microcontroller. The system automatically measures and monitors key parameters like water level, gas concentration, temperature, humidity and manhole unit tilt movement. All the sensor information is wirelessly sent to a monitoring dashboardinthecloudthroughGSM/Wi-Ficommunications. Thedashboard offerslivesensordata,alertsandgeographical information of the manhole system. The prototype developed was tested in varying environmental conditions, and showed good performance in terms of detecting abnormal cases and inproviding immediate warnings.The proposedsolutionsaves the need for manual inspection, increases worker safety, allows remote monitoring of numerous manholes and offers an efficient solution for the management of underground infrastructure in smart cities.

Introduction

This study presents a Smart Manhole Monitoring and Alert System based on Internet of Things (IoT) technology to improve the safety and management of urban drainage infrastructure. Traditional manhole inspection methods rely on manual monitoring, which is time-consuming, inefficient, and exposes workers to hazardous conditions such as toxic gases, contaminated water, and poor ventilation. Delayed detection of problems can lead to flooding, road damage, traffic disruptions, and public safety risks.

To overcome these challenges, the proposed system integrates multiple sensors, an ESP32 microcontroller, GPS tracking, and wireless communication (Wi-Fi/GSM) for continuous real-time monitoring. The system measures critical parameters including water level, gas concentration, temperature, humidity, and manhole cover tilt or movement. Data collected from sensors is transmitted to a cloud-based dashboard and mobile application, enabling authorities to remotely monitor multiple manholes and receive instant alerts during abnormal conditions.

The system uses an ultrasonic sensor for water-level detection, an MQ-135 gas sensor for hazardous gas monitoring, a DHT11 sensor for temperature and humidity measurement, an MPU6050 tilt sensor for detecting tampering or displacement, and a NEO-6M GPS module for location tracking. The ESP32 processes sensor data, compares it with predefined thresholds, and generates alerts when necessary.

Experimental testing demonstrated strong performance, achieving 95% water-level detection accuracy, 3–5 seconds gas detection response time, ±5 meters GPS accuracy, less than 5 seconds alert notification time, and high overall system reliability. The mobile dashboard provided real-time sensor readings, system status, GPS location, and immediate notifications for flooding, gas leakage, or manhole cover displacement.

Compared with existing systems, the proposed solution offers real-time monitoring, GPS tracking, tilt detection, multi-parameter sensing, remote access, and instant alert generation while eliminating the need for manual inspections. The system is low-cost, scalable, reliable, and suitable for smart city applications, helping municipalities improve drainage management, worker safety, and infrastructure maintenance efficiency.

Conclusion

TheproposedsmartmanholemonitoringandalertsystembyIoT technology is an effective and reliable solution to enhance the safety and management of underground drainage systems. The systemusesavarietyofenvironmentalsensors,allconnectedto an ESP32 microcontroller, which are installed on a small hardware platform to measure and record valuable data like water level, gasconcentration, temperature,humidity, tilt motion andgeographicallocationofthemanholeinreal-time.Allsensor data collected is wirelessly sent to a monitoring dashboard accessible remotely and in real-time from the cloud, allowing municipal authorities to see them. The developed system is able to detect the abnormal environmentalconditionsandprovide instantalertnotifications whenhazardousconditionslikewateroverflow,leakageoftoxic gases or manhole cover displacement is detected. The experimentalresultsshowsthatthesystemproposedisworking properly and stable real-time monitoring performance is maintained under various environment conditions. Automated monitoring and wireless communication greatly diminish reliance on manual inspection techniques, increase worker safety,cutdownonmaintenancedelaysandboosttheefficiency of urban drainage management systems. The proposed system is also cost-effective and scalable, which will be helpful for smart city infrastructure applications. GPS tracking and real-time dashboard monitoring enables multiple manholes to be managed at once, and can help respond swiftly in the event of an emergency. The system can be further improved by incorporating more sensors, such as vibration sensor,liquidflowsensor,andsmokedetectionsensorinfuture work to monitor the underground infrastructure to a greater extent. Machine learning algorithms can also be used to make predictive analysis of the machine and find out its possible failures before they happen so that preventive maintenance can be done. The monitoring platform can be enhanced with integration of automatic alerts like SMS, email and mobile push notifications for instant response in emergency. The dashboard can also be enhanced with advanced data visualization and historical data analysis capabilities, for improved decision-making and maintenance planning. In addition, energy-efficient solutions likeintelligentbatterymanagementmethodsandsolar-powered systems can be deployed for the long-term and sustainably operated.The envisaged enhancements in the future would add intelligence, scalability, energy-efficiency and would be very well suited to future smart city infrastructure monitoring applications.

References

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Copyright

Copyright © 2026 Chirag Vasave, Varad Bhalerao, Pratik Kawale. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.