Development of a Real-Time, Mobile Nitrate Monitoring Station for High-Frequency Data Collection
1
School of Engineering and Built Environment, Griffith University, Gold Coast Campus, Southport 4222, Australia
2
Cities Research Institute, Griffith University, Gold Coast Campus, Southport 4222, Australia
3
Australian Rivers Institute, Griffith University, Gold Coast Campus, Southport 4222, Australia
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Sustainability 2020, 12(14), 5780; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12145780
Received: 29 May 2020
/
Revised: 16 July 2020
/
Accepted: 16 July 2020
/
Published: 17 July 2020
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Risk-Informed Sustainable Development in the Rural Tropics)
A mobile monitoring station was developed to measure nitrate and physicochemical water quality parameters remotely, in real-time, and at very high frequencies (thirty minutes). Several calibration experiments were performed to validate the outputs of a real-time nutrient sensor, which can be affected by optical interferences such as turbidity, pH, temperature and salinity. Whilst most of these proved to play a minor role, a data-driven compensation model was developed to account for turbidity interferences. The reliability of real-time optical sensors has been questioned previously; however, this study has shown that following compensation, the readings can be more accurate than traditional laboratory-based equipment. In addition, significant benefits are offered by monitoring waterways at high frequencies, due to rapid changes in analyte concentrations over short time periods. This, combined with the versatility of the mobile station, provides opportunities for several beneficial monitoring applications, such as of fertiliser runoff in agricultural areas in rural regions, aquaculture runoff, and waterways in environmentally sensitive areas such as the Great Barrier Reef.
View Full-Text
Keywords:
agriculture; Nitrate runoff; real-time monitoring; water quality
▼
Show Figures
Figure 1
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
MDPI and ACS Style
Luna Juncal, M.J.; Skinner, T.; Bertone, E.; Stewart, R.A. Development of a Real-Time, Mobile Nitrate Monitoring Station for High-Frequency Data Collection. Sustainability 2020, 12, 5780. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12145780
AMA Style
Luna Juncal MJ, Skinner T, Bertone E, Stewart RA. Development of a Real-Time, Mobile Nitrate Monitoring Station for High-Frequency Data Collection. Sustainability. 2020; 12(14):5780. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12145780
Chicago/Turabian StyleLuna Juncal, Martin Jason, Timothy Skinner, Edoardo Bertone, and Rodney A. Stewart. 2020. "Development of a Real-Time, Mobile Nitrate Monitoring Station for High-Frequency Data Collection" Sustainability 12, no. 14: 5780. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12145780
Find Other Styles
Note that from the first issue of 2016, MDPI journals use article numbers instead of page numbers. See further details here.
