Equipment
Equipment is the shared, installation-wide catalog of field and monitoring devices — for example data loggers, flow meters, and water-quality sondes. It is a global catalog: an Equipment record is not scoped to any one Site or Project, so a single device is referenced from many places. Field Monitoring records note the Equipment used to take a reading. You manage the catalog at Data Management → Configuration → Equipment (/data-management/equipment).
What an Equipment record holds
Each Equipment record identifies a single device by a Code that is unique across the catalog, and classifies it by an Equipment Type. The remaining fields describe the device — its asset tag, serial number, manufacturer, and model — and are optional, because organizations vary in how much they track.
Two fields behave differently from the rest. Asset Tag is unique when you set it, so two devices cannot carry the same tag; organizations without a formal asset register leave it blank. Serial Number is not unique by design, because different manufacturers reuse the same serial-number strings.
| Field | Type | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Code | text | Yes | Identifier within the catalog; unique; up to 50 characters |
| Equipment Type | reference | Yes | The EquipmentType this device is classified as; must be active |
Active (IsActive) | yes/no | Yes | Defaults to Yes; an inactive device is hidden from the equipment picker |
| Asset Tag | text | No | Up to 100 characters; unique when set |
| Serial Number | text | No | Up to 100 characters; not unique |
| Manufacturer | text | No | Up to 200 characters |
| Model | text | No | Up to 200 characters |
| Notes | text | No | Multi-line; up to 1000 characters |
When you mark a device inactive, it disappears from the equipment picker on new records — except for the device already selected on a record you are editing, so existing references stay intact. The list at Data Management → Configuration → Equipment shows every device and marks the inactive ones with an Inactive marker; its columns are Code, Type, Category, Asset Tag, Serial Number, Manufacturer, Model, and Notes.
Equipment Type and its category
Every device points at an Equipment Type, which is reference data curated separately by Data Stewards at Reference Data → Asset Management → Equipment Types (/reference-data/equipment-types). An Equipment Type has a required, unique Name, an optional Code, a Description, an Active flag, a Pinned flag (keeps a frequently used type near the top of its picker), and a required Category.
The Category comes from a fixed enumeration of 11 values — Meteorological, Hydrological, Geotechnical, Water Quality, Air Quality, Geological, Acoustic, Radiological, Sampling Equipment, Survey & Positioning, and Support Equipment. It groups types for filtering and reporting; it is not a separately editable field. The full list with codes is in Enumerations and codes. For how to add and maintain Equipment Types and other lookups, see Managing reference data.
How Equipment is used
A device in the catalog is referenced, optionally, by the four Field Monitoring record types through an "equipment used" picker labelled Select equipment (optional). The reference records which device took the reading; it is never required.
Figure: An Equipment Type classifies its devices; each device may be referenced by Water Level, Well Purge, Field Parameter Session, and Logger Stream records.
| Monitoring record | Where the link lives | Required |
|---|---|---|
| Water Level | Equipment picker on the reading | No |
| Well Purge | Equipment picker on the purge | No |
| Field Parameter Session | Equipment picker on the session | No |
| Continuous logger (Logger Stream) | Equipment picker on the stream | No |
Because these records point at a device, you cannot delete an Equipment record while any Water Level, Well Purge, Field Parameter Session, or Logger Stream still references it — the deletion is refused as a "has dependents" conflict. The same rule protects an Equipment Type: a type cannot be deleted while any device is still classified as it. Mark a device or type inactive instead of deleting it when it is no longer in use.
Who can manage Equipment
Any internal user can view the catalog. Creating, editing, and deleting Equipment requires the Administrator, Data Manager, or Manager role. Equipment Types are reference data, so changing them is restricted to Data Stewards — the Administrator and Data Manager roles.
| Action | Administrator | Data Manager | Manager | Staff |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| View Equipment | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Create, edit, delete Equipment | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | — |
| View Equipment Type | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Create, edit, delete Equipment Type | ✓ | ✓ | — | — |