A real-time remote monitoring of water quality by means of a wireless sensor network

Abstract

Water is the key component of life on planet Earth. Although most of the Earth's surface is covered by water only a very small percentage of it is drinkable "fresh water." Drinkable water quality is influenced by several factors, like the construction of dams and embankments, the irrigation practices, and the anthropogenic activities. In order to control water quality, it is essential to understand the sources of pollutants by frequent water quality monitoring. Conventional monitoring of water quality calls for the collection of large numbers of samples and long delays until the results are available. Therefore, rapid monitoring of water quality is very important, proven by the large number of systems proposed for this kind of automatic monitoring. In this work, we propose a wireless sensor network (WSN)-based monitoring system controlled by a web-based online interface which allows the remote water quality monitoring via Internet. This brings advantages over traditional monitoring systems in terms of cost effectiveness, portability and applicability. Simulation-based studies concerning the wireless network aspects, as well as the practical output of the proposed system are presented for the evaluation of its effectiveness. Copyright © 2014 American Scientific Publishers All rights reserved.