Integrated Water Quality Monitoring Research Articles

Performance evaluation of a community-based water management organisation using integrated water quality monitoring

ABSTRACT Community-based water management organisations (CBWMOs) play an important role in providing water services worldwide. However, there is some debate as to their capacity to sustain a safe drinking water supply considering the current socioeconomic and climate scenarios. Here, we present an integrated water quality assessment of the supply system of a CBWMO in Concepción of San Ramon, Costa Rica. Major ions, trace metals, and coliforms were analysed in the households and water sources over a 1-year period. The spring risk assessments and the water quality of the main river in the catchment were also carried out. We found that although the supplied water meets adequate standards, spatial and temporal changes in the water quality of the sources exist. Springwater composition is mainly driven by rock–water interaction processes, but early signs of potential anthropogenic pollution were found. The springs showed concentrations of NO3- above natural levels and microbial contamination in 37 and 18% of the cases, respectively. River water quality showed a distinct composition, which is consistent with the anthropogenic pressures in the catchment. This study provides useful information on how water quality assessments can be used beyond regulatory processes to improve planning by CBWMOs to ensure water security.

Electrochemical Sensing of Lead in Drinking Water Using Copper Foil Bonded with Polymer.

Levels of lead (Pb) in tap water that are well below established guidelines are now considered harmful, so the detection of sub-parts-per-billion (ppb) Pb levels is crucial. In this work, we developed a two-step, facile, and inexpensive fabrication approach that involves direct bonding of copper (Cu) and liquid crystal polymer (LCP) followed by polyester resin printing for masking onto Cu/LCP to fabricate Cu thin-film-based Pb sensors. The oxygen plasma-treated surfaces resulted in strongly bonded Cu/LCP with a high peel strength of 500 N/m due to the highly hydrophilic nature of both surfaces. The bonded specimen can withstand wet etching of the electrode and can address delamination of the electrode for prolonged use in application environments. The Cu-foil-based electrochemical sensor showed sensitivity of ~11 nA/ppb/cm2 and a limit of detection (LOD) of 0.2 ppb (0.2 µg/L) Pb ions in water. The sensor required only 30 s and a 100 µL sample to detect Pb. To date, this is the most rapid detection of Pb performed using an all-Cu-based sensor. The selectivity test of Cu to Pb with interferences from cadmium and zinc showed that their peaks were separated by a few hundred millivolts. This approach has strong potential towards realizing low-cost, highly reliable integrated water quality monitoring systems.

Retrieving Water Quality Parameters from Noisy-Label Data Based on Instance Selection

As an important part of the "air–ground" integrated water quality monitoring system, the inversion of water quality from unmanned airborne hyperspectral image has attracted more and more attention. Meanwhile, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have the characteristics of small size, flexibility and quick response, and can complete the task of water environment detection in a large area, thus avoiding the difficulty in obtaining satellite data and the limitation of single-point monitoring by ground stations. Most researchers use UAV for water quality monitoring, they take water samples back to library or directly use portable sensors for measurement while flying drones at the same time. Due to the UAV speed and route planning, the actual sampling time and the UAV passing time cannot be guaranteed to be completely synchronized, and there will be a difference of a few minutes. For water quality parameters such as chromaticity (chroma), chlorophyll-a (chl-a), chemical oxygen demand (COD), etc., the changes in a few minutes are small and negligible. However, for the turbidity, especially in flowing water body, this value of it will change within a certain range. This phenomenon will lead to noise error in the measured suspended matter or turbidity, which will affect the performance of regression model and retrieval accuracy. In this study, to solve the quality problem of label data in a flowing water body, an unmanned airborne hyperspectral water quality retrieval experiment was carried out in the Xiao River in Xi’an, China, which verified the rationality and effectiveness of label denoising analysis of different water quality parameters. To identify noisy label instances efficiently, we proposed an instance selection scheme. Furthermore, considering the limitation of the dataset samples and the characteristic of regression task, we build a 1DCNN model combining a self attention mechanism (SAM) and the network achieves the best retrieving performance on turbidity and chroma data. The experiment results show that, for flowing water body, the noisy-label instance selection method can improve retrieval performance slightly on the COD parameter, but improve greatly on turbidity and chroma data.

Integrated water quality monitoring of Mahi river using benthic macroinvertebrates and comparison of its biodiversity among various stretches

Use of benthic macroinvertebrates has been in vogue as indicator organisms for water quality monitoring since long. Traditional methods of water quality monitoring incorporate mostly monitoring of physicochemical parameters. However, it is the biomonitoring studies that could help in more accurate water quality monitoring. Due to anthropogenic impact at water sources, integrated water quality monitoring has become a necessity. An integrated study comprising physicochemical parameters and biomonitoring using benthic macroinvertebrates was carried out at six sites along the Mahi river basin, the command area of which has witnessed tremendous economic and cultural progress over a period of time. Diversity Score and Saprobic Score were calculated, and Water Quality Class was determined as per Biological Monitoring Working Party score given by Central Pollution Control Board and results in moderate pollution at all locations, whereas Water Quality Class as per ISI-IS 2296–1982 at M-1, M-4, M-7 and M-12 shows slight pollution. Jaccard’s similarity index compared the biodiversity of benthic macroinvertebrates at all the sites from upstream to downstream locations. It was maximum, i.e., 52.94% between the locations at M-4 and M-7. Species richness (S) has also been monitored at the said locations. The Diversity Score 0.83 is maximum at the Galteshwar (M-12) location of the Mahi river, which indicates that the location was the most ecologically diverse region among all.

Design Configuration of Water Quality Monitoring System in Surabaya

Water have been important needs for human life in many sectors such as in industry, agriculture, and household that its quality must be conserved so is in Surabaya city. The quality of water could influence the quality of human life directly, thus it is important to have an integrated water quality monitoring system. Information regarding water quality monitoring such as pH, dissolved oxygen, turbidity, and conductivity were collected to produce a periodic decision for controlling, analyzing, and fixing the condition of the water. This paper proposed a design configuration of water quality monitoring system for tap water in Surabaya. First, a comparison study of water quality monitoring technology in terms of area, parameter, and methodology from the previous researchers is presented. From the study, the design configuration of water quality monitoring system to be implemented in Surabaya is concluded. The data collection method is better to be done by using Internet of Things (IoT) technology where it is possible to do multiple data type and multiple point real-time data collection throughout the water distribution network remotely.

Integrated water quality monitoring system with pH, free chlorine, and temperature sensors

Accurate, efficient, inexpensive, and multi-parameter monitoring of water quality parameters is critical for continued water safety from developed urban regions to resource-limited or sparsely populated areas. This study describes an integrated sensing system with solution-processed pH, free chlorine, and temperature sensors on a common glass substrate. The pH and temperature sensors are fabricated by low-cost inkjet printing of palladium/palladium oxide and silver. The potentiometric pH sensor has a high sensitivity of 60.6mV/pH and a fast response of 15s. The Wheatstone-bridge-based temperature sensor shows an immediate response of 3.35mV/°C towards temperature change. The free chlorine sensor is based on an electrochemically modified pencil lead, which exhibits a stable and reproducible sensitivity of 342nA/ppm for hypochlorous acid. Such a free chlorine sensor is potentiostat-free and calibration-free, so it is easy-to-use. The three sensors are connected to a field-programmable gate array board for data collection, analysis and display, with real-time pH and temperature compensation for free chlorine sensing. The developed sensing system is user-friendly, cost-effective, and can monitor water samples in real-time with an accuracy of >82%. This platform enables water quality monitoring by nonprofessionals in a simple manner.

A Holistic Watershed Planning Approach: How MSDGC Conducts an Integrated Water Quality Monitoring Project

A Holistic Watershed Planning Approach: How MSDGC Conducts an Integrated Water Quality Monitoring Project

Source to point of use drinking water changes and knowledge, attitude and practices in Katsina State, Northern Nigeria

In many Sub-Saharan countries such as Nigeria, inadequate access to safe drinking water is a serious problem with 37% in the region and 58% of rural Nigeria using unimproved sources. The global challenge to measuring household water quality as a determinant of safety is further compounded in Nigeria by the possibility of deterioration from source to point of use. This is associated with the use of decentralised water supply systems in rural areas which are not fully reticulated to the household taps, creating a need for an integrated water quality monitoring system. As an initial step towards establishing the system in the north west and north central zones of Nigeria, The Katsina State Rural Water and Sanitation Agency, responsible for ensuring access to safe water and adequate sanitation to about 6 million people carried out a three pronged study with the support of UNICEF Nigeria. Part 1 was an assessment of the legislative and policy framework, institutional arrangements and capacity for drinking water quality monitoring through desk top reviews and Key Informant Interviews (KII) to ascertain the institutional capacity requirements for developing the water quality monitoring system. Part II was a water quality study in 700 households of 23 communities in four local government areas. The objectives were to assess the safety of drinking water, compare the safety at source and household level and assess the possible contributory role of end users’ Knowledge Attitudes and Practices. These were achieved through water analysis, household water quality tracking, KII and questionnaires. Part III was the production of a visual documentary as an advocacy tool to increase awareness of the policy makers of the linkages between source management, treatment and end user water quality. The results indicate that except for pH, conductivity and manganese, the improved water sources were safe at source. However there was a deterioration in water quality between source and point of use in 18%, 12.5%, 27% and 50% of hand pump fitted boreholes, motorised boreholes, hand dug wells and streams respectively. Although no statistical correlation could be drawn between water management practices and water quality deterioration, the survey of the study households gave an indication of the possible contributory role of their knowledge, attitudes and practices to water contamination after provision. Some of the potential water related sources of contamination were poor source protection and location, use of unimproved water source and poor knowledge and practice of household water treatment methods, poor hand washing practices in terms of percentage that wash hands and use soap. Consequently 34 WASH departments have been created at the local government level towards establishment of a community based monitoring system and piloting has begun in Kaita local government area.

Morphology of Pt-doped nanofabricated RuO 2 sensing electrodes and their properties in water quality monitoring sensors

Integrated water quality monitoring sensors were fabricated using micro-fabrication technologies, nanostructured Pt-doped RuO 2 sensing electrode (SE) and an Ag/AgCl reference electrode (RE). The properties of RuO 2–SE were evaluated for potentiometric detection of pH and dissolved oxygen (DO) at temperatures from 9 to 30 °C. Pt-doped nanostructured RuO 2–SEs were prepared on alumina sensor substrates. Their morphology was investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), electron dispersion spectroscopy (EDX), thermo-gravimetric/differential thermal analysis (TGA/DTA) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). It was found that morphology and surface compositions of nanostructured RuO 2–SEs are sensitive to superoxide oxygen ions (O 2 −). Sensors with Pt-doped RuO 2–SE showed Nernstian response to pH from 2.0 to 13.0 and were also capable of measuring DO in the range of 0.6–8.0 ppm. The measurement results show very good linearity and an excellent reproducibility was obtained during the 8 months of testing so far. Nernstian slope was 58 mV/pH at a temperature of 23 °C. Although RuO 2–SEs have exhibited very good response time to pH changes, which was within 1–2 s at a temperature of 23 °C, as water temperature cooled down, the sensor response time increased and was about 8–10 min at working temperature of 9 °C. Influence of the hydrogen ion (H +) diffusion in RuO 2 films on the output emf drift at pH measurements was also investigated.

Morphology and sensing characteristics of nanostructured RuO 2 electrodes for integrated water quality monitoring sensors

Nanostructured RuO 2 sensing electrodes (SE) for water quality sensors were prepared on platinized alumina substrates. Their morphology was analysed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The results show that morphology and surface compositions of RuO 2-SEs are sensitive to superoxide oxygen ions ( O 2 - ). Sensing properties of RuO 2-SEs were investigated for potentiometric detection of dissolved oxygen and pH at temperatures from 9 to 30 °C. Sensor was capable to measure dissolved oxygen from 0.6 to 8.0 ppm and from 2 to 13 pH, respectively. The measurement results show very good linearity and an excellent reproducibility was obtained. Nernstian slope was 58 mV/pH at 23 °C for the RuO 2-SEs. Although RuO 2 film SEs have shown very good response time to the pH changes, which was within 1–2 s at temperature 23 °C, as water temperature cooled down, the sensor response time increased and was about 8–10 min at a temperature of 9 °C.

Preparation of Integrated Water Quality Monitoring and Assessment Reports: Recommendations for Clean Water Act §303(d) and §305(b) Methodologies and Reporting

Preparation of Integrated Water Quality Monitoring and Assessment Reports: Recommendations for Clean Water Act §303(d) and §305(b) Methodologies and Reporting

Advanced River Quality Monitoring in the Ruhr Basin

The water quality management of Ruhr River Association is challenged by the dual use pattern, i. e. drinking water supply and wastewater discharge simultaneously into the same river. In the past 10 years accidental or illegal pollution occurred statistically every twenty days. Identification of water pollutants (and polluters) was often impossible because water samples could not be secured for analysis in time. The water quality surveillance system could be extended with financial support of the European Union by another two automated monitoring stations equipped with sophisticated on-line analysators (e. g. for ammonia, chromium, chlorophyll fluorescence) and biomonitors using water fleas and mussels as detectors. Monitoring strategies, methods, techniques and costs for buildings, equipment and operation are reported. Experience and results obtained so far let assume that the integrated water quality monitoring is able to prove its merits concerning reconnaissance of accidental water pollution and subsequent early warning of water works.

Advanced river quality monitoring in The Ruhr basin

The water quality management of Ruhr River Association is challenged by the dual use pattern, i. e. drinking water supply and wastewater discharge simultaneously into the same river. In the past 10 years accidental or illegal pollution occurred statistically every twenty days. Identification of water pollutants (and polluters) was often impossible because water samples could not be secured for analysis in time. The water quality surveillance system could be extended with financial support of the European Union by another two automated monitoring stations equipped with sophisticated on-line analysators (e. g. for ammonia, chromium, chlorophyll fluorescence) and biomonitors using water fleas and mussels as detectors. Monitoring strategies, methods, techniques and costs for buildings, equipment and operation are reported. Experience and results obtained so far let assume that the integrated water quality monitoring is able to prove its merits concerning reconnaissance of accidental water pollution and subsequent early warning of water works.

Systems view of integrated water quality monitoring within the requirements of the new national water policy in South Africa

The new National water policy will change the way water quality is managed in South Africa. The paper considers the water policy and the repercussions it will have for water quality monitoring in South Africa. Using the systems approach the paper discusses an integrated water quality monitoring system for ambient water quality and point and non point sources of aquatic pollution. The proposed methodology makes possible continuos assessment of water quality in an efficient manner so as to support water quality management in South Africa.

Systems view of integrated water quality monitoring within the requirements of the new national water policy in South Africa

The new National water policy will change the way water quality is managed in South Africa. The paper considers the water policy and the repercussions it will have for water quality monitoring in South Africa. Using the systems approach the paper discusses an integrated water quality monitoring system for ambient water quality and point and non point sources of aquatic pollution. The proposed methodology makes possible continuos assessment of water quality in an efficient manner so as to support water quality management in South Africa.