Water pollution is one of the biggest threats to sustainability. To guarantee a safe supply of drinking water, the quality must be monitored in real-time. Real-time water quality management is an important aspect of any sustainable society. The traditional way of monitoring water quality is through staff taking measurements with instruments and logging the data. These manual methods are not only time-consuming and cost-intensive – but they also present challenges.
Errors can be easily made when water quality is measured manually. In addition, the quality of the data decreases due to inaccurate and faulty measurements. Measuring manually takes a lot of time and effort and is, therefore, neither efficient nor cost-effective. Staff should receive training to prepare them for taking measurements on-site. The water quality must be continuously monitored and improved, with quality problems detected at the earliest possible stage.
Water quality assessment and monitoring is essential as it helps to identify potential environmental issues due to detecting the spread of pollutants on time. Monitoring water quality with IoT offers an excellent solution for this.
Smart sensors measure multiple parameters
IoT systems provide a continuous stream of real-time water quality data to various municipal authorities to improve water resource management. Below are examples of measurable water quality parameters with smart sensors:
1. Chemical Oxygen Demand
2. Biochemical Oxygen Demand
3. pH
4. Dissolved Oxygen (DO)
5. Turbidity
6. Electrical Conductivity
7. Temperature
8. Oxidation Reduction Potential
9. Salinity
10. Total Nitrogen
11. Total Phosphorus
Benefits of IoT systems in monitoring water quality
The advantage of IoT in monitoring and assessing water quality is the possibility to monitor the quality in real-time. The status of water quality can be accessed at any time. IoT also provides automatic measurements, reducing the need for manual measurements and data logging. These IoT systems help valuable human resources to increase their productivity and eliminate human errors in data logging and calculations. IoT has led to the use of adaptive and responsive systems in water quality monitoring. These smart systems can warn authorities or staff of imminent danger, such as out-of-spec conditions or excursions.
Monitoring water quality: Agriculture
As an essential resource for plant growth, water quality is crucial in agricultural activities and has a significant impact on the productivity and efficiency of agricultural ecosystems. Whether you are talking about vertical farming, precision farming, greenhouse farming, hydroponics, or any other agricultural practices, one thing is clear: technology, and in particular IoT, has proven to be valuable in creating favorable conditions for plant growth. The growth of plants can be hindered by the presence of certain factors in the growing environment. IoT water sensors can be used to monitor a variety of variables. The result: farmers can maximize crop growth and increase their production capacity.
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