Watercourse safety encompasses both the protection of third parties and the operational security of regulated rivers and reservoirs.
Founded in 2000, Aqua Guardian is today part of Ovun, offered as a specialized product line for watercourse safety.
While Aqua Guardian products alone cannot fully eliminate the risk of incidents or accidents, they are designed as targeted measures—based on thorough risk and vulnerability analyses—to significantly reduce the likelihood of such events.
Vassfall and Ovun work in close partnership on continuous product development, with a strong commitment to sustainability at the core.
Aqua Guardian’s barriers are engineered and developed to withstand Northern European conditions year after year. The product performs reliably through seasonal variations, extreme weather, thick ice, and significant water level fluctuations.
The barriers are available in two models: Single Open and Single Closed. In a Single Open installation, the floats are mounted with small gaps in between, while in a Single Closed installation, the floats are mounted seamlessly without gaps.
Ovun supplies a wide range of buoys for watercourse safety—either as standalone visual markers or in combination with lines and barriers to ensure the integrity of an installation.
Many of the buoys can be equipped with signs, lights, radar reflectors, as well as various types of sensors and communication systems.
Aqua Guardian’s lines provide a clear visual warning to third parties navigating or moving around regulated rivers and reservoirs. They are typically installed in safe zones in front of dam facilities, intake gates, and other areas with hazardous water currents.
Since their introduction to the market in 2010, more than 30,000 meters of lines have been installed across Norwegian and Swedish waterways and reservoirs. An important outcome of this widespread use is that third parties have gradually come to recognize and respond to the visual signal when moving from one location to another.
Lines are cost-efficient, easy to handle, and, when installed correctly, provide a significant increase in safety for third parties.
We supply all types of watercourse safety signs and their mounting equipment—hazard signs, prohibition signs, and informational signs. These can be delivered either as standalone pictogram signs or with supplementary panels, all in accordance with NVE’s official templates. We also provide customized reservoir signs. A reservoir sign combines maps and text to clearly communicate the potential dangers of the reservoir, both in summer and winter.
High-quality signage is the first step toward effective watercourse safety. In some cases, signs alone are sufficient, but more often they are used in combination with other safety measures such as barriers, lines, and buoys.
