Introduction
In recent years, safe and clean water has become a scarce resource as a result of increasing threats from population growth, global warming, and pollution. To make sure that drinking water is always clean and free from impurities, the water quality needs to be monitored on a real-time basis.
While water quality monitoring systems have experienced many advancements over the past decade, all of these advancements are still centered around the same wireless network technology that’s prone to issues with coverage, high energy consumption. The Internet of Things (IoT) has provided a solution for many of these issues and is designed to offer a more efficient monitoring solution that delivers real-time data.
Conventional Water Quality Sensors
If you use a more traditional testing technique that takes place in the lab, this process will be time-consuming and expensive. All lab-based testing must be performed manually, which makes it impossible to obtain real-time results. Along with a lack of real-time monitoring, there are also issues with data collection. It takes a long time to obtain and verify results.
Digital Water Quality Sensors
Wireless water quality sensor network was use to develop a real-time monitoring system. This system was detect pH and ammonia concentration. Once a sensor was place in the water, these water quality parameters were identified and transmitted to the cloud via an Ethernet shield. It was now possible for real-time data to be quickly analyzed. If the parameter values ever dipped too low or rose too high.
Smart Water Quality Sensors
In recent years, IoT-based Smart Water Quality Monitoring (SWQM) systems have been develop. This process involves measuring certain water quality parameters with IoT. The types of parameters that can be measured include pH, dissolved oxygen, temperature, ions, and turbidity. The purpose of this monitoring technique is to make sure the parameters remain in the proper range.
With more conventional treatment methods, the water monitoring technique is performed physically with chemicals. When using a more modern system that includes smart sensors, it’s possible to keep track of all water quality parameters in real-time. Regardless of the IoT system you purchase to monitor water quality, there are numerous hardware components that the system will be equipped with, which include:
- Ultrasonic sensors
- Digital thermometer sensors
- Different types of pH sensors
- Turbidity sensors
Ultrasonic sensors can produce a sound wave that reaches 40 kHz, which allows for information to be relayed about how close an object is. A pH sensor tells how acidic or alkaline the water is. When water is too acidic, it’s likely that numerous contaminants are present in the water. Most pH sensors are comprised of a reference and electrode of measurement.
When pH values increase, hydrogen ion concentration drops ten-fold, which means that the acidic water isn’t as intense. The numerous advantages of using a smart sensor when monitoring water quality include improve data security, cost-effectiveness.
Evolution of Water Pollution Monitoring Techniques
Over the years, water pollution monitoring techniques have evolved in many ways. At the beginning, the only options involve manual testing in a laboratory, which took undue amounts of time and didn’t allow for water quality to be improved in an efficient manner. Since that time, portable sensors were develope alongside WSN technology. These improvements allowed for real-time data to be given to people who can make fast .
As touched upon previously, the more traditional methods of monitoring water quality involve using chemicals and putting in a high amount of manual effort. While these issues were present, the process of monitoring water quality took too much time and cost too much money. Even before IoT was developed, WSN technology accommodate real-time data, which means that a laboratory was no longer needed to perform testing.
Latest Trends and Benefits of Smart Water Quality Monitoring
IoT-based SWQM systems have already been used across many domains, which include leak detection, sustainability certifications, aquatic life preservation, buildings. These systems have overcome many of the limitations that exist with previous techniques while also providing more advanced monitoring capabilities.
One issue that IoT-based SWQM systems have been able to help with is the lack of high-quality water in clinics, hospices, hospital. In order for patients to be kept safe, they must be free from infection. If the water in the hospital has been contaminate, it’s difficult to keep infection at bay. IoT-based systems allow for the exact contaminant levels to be identified and for this data to be given to you in an instant after measurements are taken.