"With sufficient data, public and private organizations will be empowered with the information needed for the preservation and conservation of our natural waterways."
Population Growth and Water Pollution
Water pollution is becoming one of the greatest threats to freshwater availability and re-use. Contaminants from industrialization and population growth can increase concentrations of metals and chemicals, suspended sediment, and temperature, and decrease dissolved oxygen in water. Each of these have a negative impact on the aquatic ecosystem and makes water unsuitable for our needs.
Our local waterways can be polluted by a number of human activities including:
- Waste treatment facilities
- Rainwater runoff in urban areas
- Nitrates from fertilizers used in agriculture
Poor water quality not only negatively affects human health and ecosystems, but it makes water unfit for different uses and purposes, thereby reducing resource availability. By 2050, 52% of the world’s population will live in water-stressed regions. UN-Water coordinates the efforts of United Nations entities and international organizations working to protect water resources from pollution, enhance and restore water quality, conserve water, and use water efficiently. More than 30 UN organizations have water and sanitation programs, reinforcing the fact that water issues are a global concern that require urgent attention.
Water Quality Management with the IoT
If managed sustainably and effectively, the planet’s freshwater resources can meet our increasing demands. Testing water quality has traditionally required chemicals, testing strips and equipment. This method requires technically trained personnel to go into the field, gather samples and process them through a lab. It is time consuming, costly, and can yield inaccurate results when testing for certain elements like fluoride. Portable field testing has become more popular but isn’t always available. For elements like arsenic, commercial testing kits are complex and require several steps.
IoT sensors can measure the most relevant levels related to water quality control such as:
- dissolved oxygen
- oxidation-reduction potential
- pH
- turbidity
- total dissolved solids
- temperature
IoT devices present us with the bigger picture by aggregating data and presenting it in an actionable format. IoT can be applied to tank filling levels, controlling the quality of water used in manufacturing processes, and detecting leaks. Researchers, municipalities, farmers, and manufacturers can use IoT technology to improve water management processes:
- Maintain Water Quality - City pools, lakes, ponds, and streams can all be monitored to better understand the impact of usage and potential contaminants.
- Improve Sustainability - Promote sustainable use of resources by reporting on water and utility usage, identify trends, and compare data over time.
Building a Smart Water Quality Monitor
Monitoring water quality with an IoT device requires an array of smart sensors capable of measuring everything from pH to turbidity. With multiple sensors recording and reporting data, efficient power management and clean data visualization become critical considerations.
By using Blues Wireless, your data can be pumped to any cloud app with lightweight, intermittent connectivity that makes battery usage extremely efficient. Blues Wireless provides edge-to-cloud IoT infrastructure, with hardware, firmware, and cloud communication components to route to an external service for creating robust reporting and data visualization dashboards:
- Notecard: A tiny 30mm x 35mm System on a Module (SoM), the LTE Cat-M Notecard, North America is a cellular and GPS-enabled device-to-cloud secure data-pump that comes with 500 MB of data and 10 years of cellular for only $49. Other options are available to suit your project needs.
- Notecarrier: To make integration in an existing project easier, Blues Wireless provides host boards called Notecarriers. For this project, use the Notecarrier-A (or Notecarrier-F, coming soon).
- Notehub.io: On the cloud side, the Notecard ships preconfigured to communicate with Notehub, a thin cloud layer that enables secure bidirectional data flow. Notecards are assigned to a project in Notehub, which can route data from these projects to your cloud of choice or integrate into a data visualization platform like Ubidots.
Sometimes you have devices that need to be retrofitted with connectivity hardware. The Blues Wireless Notecard and Notecarrier can be embedded into existing hardware and microprocessors like the EnviroDIY Mayfly Data Logger. Simply connect the Notecard to your devices existing UART or I2C bus, and it will connect your device to the cellular network automatically, ready to transmit and receive data from its associated Notehub account.
You can find the complete project assembly instructions on Hackster and the full source code on GitHub.
Hackster: https://www.hackster.io/zachary_fields/earth-day-2021-stream-research-55a49b
The main parts of this project are:
- Assemble the hardware.
- Secure hardware in waterproof container..
- Build data visualization dashboard.
By simply declaring an Ubidots “device” (end-point), you can target Ubidots from your Notehub.io project’s route, and direct the sensor readings to flow into Ubidots. Once sensor readings are in your Ubidots device, it becomes trivial to arrange them into a dashboard. Follow the Blues Wireless Ubidots Guide for the complete steps on connecting to Ubidots from your Notehub.io route. In order to complete this guide, you’ll need the following:
- A Notehub project with at least one Notecard sending sensor-reading Notes at regular intervals.
- An account with the external service you plan to use to complete this tutorial.