The Shadeways project, being carried out by RMIT University, the City of Greater Bendigo, the Technology Innovation Lab (TIL) at La Trobe University, and other project partners, has the objective of developing a platform to integrate maps of satellite-derived land surface temperatures to inform users of the location of urban hot spots.
As part of this project, a high-density observation network is being deployed within the Bendigo urban area. These use low-cost sensors for temperature, relative humidity and pressure within a "beehive" screen, and are designed and developed at the TIL and use 3D printing technology, and communicate with the central data collection point through "gateways" (repeaters) being operated with the support of the community, including the local amateur radio group. Two prototype stations are already deployed and reporting to the Weather Observations Website (WOW) within the Bureau of Meteorology infrastructure. The intention is to continue observations indefinitely once the network is established.
It is planned to deploy approximately 100 stations within the Bendigo urban area (47 km2). Whilst many stations will be established on public land, the project is seeking the support of the community to host some proportion of the stations on private land. The aim is to obtain good coverage of the full Bendigo urban area, with one constraint being the availability of line of sight to a repeater. (Potential good sites for coverage from the repeaters are being mapped using instruments mounted on Council garbage trucks).
The network potentially has applications well beyond the Shadeways project. In particular, it will allow detailed mapping of minimum temperatures to an extent that has not previously been possible in an inland location with complex topography. There are also possible applications in high-resolution urban numerical weather prediction modelling.