MenomiNet: A Prototype Network for Real-Time Public Lake Data

Abstract

When approaching the Red Cedar Watershed, it is important to know the quality of the water to get a glimpse into what methods could be helpful in remediation, as well as the long-term impact that those efforts have. Testing various properties of the water can reveal both the current and trending health within a watershed, while the availability of long-term, continuous data supports researchers in the quest for funding. There are high quality sensors available that measure lake health effectively but manufacturing the systems for monitoring water quality is costly and therefore inaccessible to organizations with small budgets, leading to uneven access to quality data for conservation efforts. Further, these systems often require a person to manually collect data from a logger on-site, utilizing more time and resources. The use of common devices and sensors, available to the average consumer, can vastly reduce cost and increase accessibility. Including a radio for the transmission of the data reduces the necessity for on-site data collection, allowing someone to collect from the shore, or even from their own office with an extended network. To start to address these issues, my research partner and I spent the summer designing and building a prototype DIY water quality monitor that can be constructed and improved upon by interested members of the community or lake associations. We collaborated with environmental experts and researched similar work for the insight necessary to gain direction and prioritize which lake properties to measure. Our efforts largely centered around a microprocessor and sensors that were known to be compatible with it. We made our intent with every purchase to minimize cost and maximize ease of use. Using readily available materials such as buckets and PVC reduced the need for precision and sped up manufacturing. Upon completion of our prototype, we anchored our DIY buoy in a small bay overnight and tested the transmission of data both upon release and collection. After returning, we made some adjustments to our physical design, recalibrated the system, and redeployed for 5 days. Over the course of those days, we checked the data received against lab calibrated equipment for accuracy and precision. We also tested the range of our transmission by walking our receiver from the shore. The consistency of our data was tested by returning multiple times during the deployment with the same methods as before. The system was largely successful, providing live feed data collection from the shore while presenting reasonable values for temperature, dissolved oxygen, and pH. The system has low power consumption and was able to provide data for almost a week with constant collection and broadcast. The DIY buoy did not sustain any water damage, showing that home methods of construction are adequate for proper data collection. This system also provides the potential for additional sensors for a more detailed view of watershed health while remaining cost effective. A low-cost network of water quality monitors can provide continuous data to the public and interested groups, supporting informed decision making for local farmers, policy makers, and conservationists. The network would also allow for easy collaboration between groups to share data with each other. It will reduce the time and resources spent on collection of data on-site, while also providing more frequent information. Researchers will be able to map trends, provide insight to government officials and help with directed federal conservation efforts.