Long-term Monitoring
Continuous water quality monitoring provides reliable data for baseline water quality and flow studies -- and keeps you one step ahead of harmful algal blooms, sediment plumes, and low dissolved oxygen events.
Continuous monitoring can give you data in near real-time. But it's also important to set up a system that can withstand long periods in weather and productive waters.
Goal: Monitoring Water Quality at Heathrow Airport
Organization: Heathrow Airport
Location: London, United Kingdom
Challenge: Need long-term monitoring of pollution to assess construction and diversion impact on river habitat following major expansion project of airport terminal and runway.
Solution: Deployed long-term, automated water quality monitoring system -- incorporated into existing telemetry - for near real-time data.
Dollars and $ense:
Unique sampling chamber of AWQMS (the "green box") decreased maintenance and cleaning by reducing biofouling build-up on sensors. A six-week maintenance interval was maintained vs one-week interval for competitive monitoring solution.
Maintenance cost of green box automated solution is 1/6 of the cost of competitive monitoring solution per year.
Goal: Monitoring Rivers for Water Quality and Pollution
Organization: Federal government and consultant
Location: Malaysia
Challenge: Need long-term monitoring of pollution to assess health of riverine source of drinking water.
Solution: Deployed 15 long-term, automated water quality monitoring stations with telemetry for near real-time data. These sites work in conjunction with automatic samplers for lab analysis.
Dollars and $ense:
The cost of a continuous unattended monitoring station "pays for itself daily." Key benefits include the ability to:
- Protect public health by immediately shutting down water intake if water quality baseline values are over-limit
- Collect data which captures the timing, location, and possible source of polluter for rapid response
