Xochimilco, Mexico
valuable weather data
“farmers, gardeners, trajinera pilots, environmentalists - all are concerned about the level of water (and thus the weather) at xochimilco.”
It has been well publicized that Mexico City is facing a water crisis. It is less well known that Xochimilco, the UNESCO World Heritage site south of Mexico City, is sinking in large part because of this water crisis.
The first time I was on a trajinera in the canals of Xochimilco was in 2019. Like most visitors, my wife, my friends and I were out for fun, enjoying the colorful boats, the food, the atmosphere...and even the calmness of the water at times.
On this visit in July of 2024, almost exactly five years later, there were no mariachis, mezcal or sun covers (at least not on our boat!). My partner Alejandro (founder, visionary and CEO of Regenera México) and I were hauling equipment to capture much needed weather data about this lovely place. Represeting SensorETA, lead partner of WeatherXM, we were deploying a Seeed Helium IoT hotspot and a WeatherXM weather station (the first of each in the area) as the pilot deployments in the WeatherXM/SwissBorg project. The goal of the WeatherXM/SwissBorg project is to provide weather stations and thus weather data to underserved areas. And given the enthusiasm with which this deployment for that project was received, it certainly met that criteria.
The pilot of our tajerina, the gentleman with the long pole behind Katherine and Alejandro in the photo, and also the owner of the flower and succulent farm where we deployed this weather station, is Angel. Angel not only spoke with us about the level of the water lowering in in the Xochimilco canals, but also gave us a master class in how the mud from the canals is “harvested” and utilized in his growing of some of the plants he sells. This type of historical farms is near and dear to the philosophy of my partners at Regenera Mexico, owners of the most beautiful regenerative agriculture farm I have visited.
Xochimilco has suffered a double whammy decreasing the water level: the drought conditions that are affecting much of the country, and the practice of pumping water out of Xochimilco to support the city’s growing population, and pumping back in “treated” water.
As can be seen in the UNESCO maps, Xochimilco is an extensive area. The first stop in our tajerina ride was at the home of one of Alejandro’s contacts, who graciously let us into their home to utilize their internet for the Seeed Helium hotspot. He was enthusiastic about the weather information that they would be provided, and asked many questions about the data and technology. Typically, LoRaWAN can travel 5-10 kilometers depending on terrain.
Angel’s garden, which would be the location of the initial WeatherXM weather station, was only about a couple of kilometers away. But there were many trees and canals in between. We had to put the hotspot indoors for the initial install. Since we want to install more weather stations to cover all of Xochimilco, our team later returned with an outdoor enclosure.
After the hotspot install, we returned to the boat and headed toward Angel’s place. The photos show just a small sampling of the succulents and other plants he grows. He showed us cilantro growing in a platte of mud taken from the bottom of the canals, and described the richness of that soil and its great affects on the growth.
With much digging and Alejandro’s acrobatics, we set a pole in the ground and mounted the weather station. In the photo below Angel’s garden can be found in the background, and the canals of Xochimilco are just beyond that.
I had one of the wonderful Glamos devices with me, using it to measure the LoRa signal from the hotspot we installed. During the boat ride to Angel’s place, we were concerned since we had no signal. But immediately before the final install, the Glamos showed a successful test.
This weather data, along with the other WeatherXM stations that our team will deploy in this area, will help the farmers, gardeners, environmentalists and boat owners of Xochimilco. That is the type of value that WeatherXM and Swissborg were seeking when they launched this project. Each WeatherXM station SensorETA deploys is automatically integrated into our ETA Rules engine, and can be combined with soil, air quality and other data for alerting and automation. Other agriculture use cases can be viewed on the WeatherXM agriculture page.
Any one who would like to view the weather data of this station can look on the WeatherXM explorer here. Readers interested in weather data should check out the WeatherXM Pro page and connect with them via data@weatherxm.com.
For more on the importance of Xochimilco, see this article.
For more on Regenera México and their work in regenerative agriculture, visit their website.
Interested in deploying Helium IOT Network coverage and have questions about deployment? Connect with us at SensorETA on our contact page, and you can get in touch with the Helium Foundation team here.
