Increased evaporation leads to increased precipitation. Warming at nearly twice the rate of the global average, Asia is increasingly prone to heavy rainfall and flooding. While monitoring river levels can help warn local governments and communities of risks, a majority of the world's rivers remain ungauged.

To scale river level monitoring, researchers in Laos set about developing an affordable, frugal design for an open-source laser gauge capable of withstanding the harsh conditions of the country's inter-tropical rivers.

In this episode, Alain Pierret and Norbert Silvera from IRD, the French Research Institute for Development, explain the challenges that led to the design, the benefits of river monitoring, and why open-source is key to enabling technology transfer. 

HardwareX is a peer-reviewed scientific journal about open-source hardware. For more info, visit HardwareX.