Designing an automated water quality monitoring system for West and Rhode Rivers

The Chesapeake Bay is the largest estuary in the United States, where its watershed is home to more than 3, 600 species of plants and animals and more than 16.6 million people. However one of its major issues is water pollution. Good water quality is vital for the health of all these plants, animals and people. In order to act upon this problem and restore the water, there is the need to monitor the water quality. There are currently several organizations and agencies monitoring different parts of the bay and working to restore the bay. This project analyzes innovative ways to improve water quality monitoring in the West and Rhode rivers. The water in these rivers is currently monitored by a River Keeper. There is the need for an improved system with higher frequency of data input, higher accuracy of higher quality sensors, and a wider range of parameters being monitored. The motivation behind this project is to develop a transfer function between water quality and source of pollution. An improved model will allow the river keeper to have a better understanding of the conditions of the water and track the sources of pollution. With this new system, he will be able to act upon this acquired data and help to restore these rivers and subsequently the Chesapeake Bay. This design evaluated various sensor alternatives, transmission technologies, and used GIS mapping software in order to implement an automated water monitoring system for the West and Rhode rivers. A notional utility curve between available sensors and transmission techniques was developed where preliminary results indicate a system will fit the river keepers´ needs and desired goals.