Kiawah Island Case Study

Challenge

Kiawah Island is a barrier island on the Atlantic coast southwest of Charleston, South Carolina. The island is home to a gated beach community and golf resort. The Kiawah Island Community Association (KICA), Inc., maintains the landscaping in this exclusive community. KICA has been working on a multi-phase revitalization project along one of the main thoroughfares on the island. BaseStation 1000 irrigation controllers and soil moisture sensors were installed during this project.

“I am very pleased with how the Baseline controllers held up under the storm conditions.”

—Larry Carter, KICA Irrigation Supervisor

Solution

In early October 2015, Kiawah Island was in the path of Hurricane Joaquin and several other weather patterns. The island received 12” to 18” of rain from this storm. The roads were closed, and the island was unreachable for several days.

During this time, the KICA irrigation supervisor was unable to see some of his Baseline controllers in BaseManager. When he was finally able to check on the controllers, he found most of them partially submerged in flood water. The controller in the photo above was still on and operating normally even though the pedestal was partially flooded. In some other pedestals, the GFI receptacles tripped and protected the controllers. After replacing the receptacles, every controller came back up and functioned normally.