Integration of sensors for dam water quality analysis – a prototype

Abstract

Water consumed is stored in several water bodies in and around us, out of which dams accommodate a major portion of water. The quantity and quality monitoring of water in Dams is troublesome due to its large surface area and high depths. Though groundwater resources are the primary water source in India, Dams plays a vital role in water distribution and storage network. Central Water Commission in India has identified more than 5,000 dams of which a major portion is persistently consumed by the rural and urban population for drinking and irrigation. The water quality of these reservoirs is of serious concern as it would not only affect the socio-economic status of the nation but the aquatic systems as well. Water quality control and management are vital for delivering clean water supply to the common society. Because of their size, collecting, assessing, and managing a vast volume of water quality data is critical. Water quality data is primarily obtained through manual field sampling; however, real-time sensor monitoring is increasingly being used for more efficient data collection. The literature depicts that the methodsinvolving remote sensing and image processing of water quality analysis consume time, require sample collection at various depths, analysis of collected samples, and manual interpretations. The objective of this study is to propose a novel cost-effective method to monitor water quality devoid of considerable human intervention. The sensor-based online monitoring aids in assessing the sample with limited technology, at various depths of water in the dam to analyze turbidity which gives the major indication of pure water. The quality analysis of the dam water is worthy if the water is assessed at the distribution end before consumption. Hence, to enhance the water management system, other quality parameters like pH, conductivity, temperature are sensed and monitored in the distribution pipeline. The unstable pH can alter the chemical and microbiological aspects of water resulting in a variation of other water quality parameters Temperature variations affect the amount of dissolved oxygen in the water bodies which results in unstable quality parameters. The change in dissolved solvents and the ionic concentration alters the electrical conductivity of the water and the increased concentration of salts also results in turbidity. The data from all the sensors are processed by the microcontroller, transmitted, and displayed in a mobile application comprehensible to the layman.

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“…Secchi Disk Depth [50], [67], [83], [93] parameter for assessing the water quality. There were also some studies which focused on other water quality parameters including algal blooms [8], [11], [57], [70], total suspended matter (TSM) [121], temperature [30], [74], [75], [82], [94], and water clarity [50], [67], [83].…”

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“…Nigam et al 2021;Khanam et al 2022). When employed in a network, sensor techniques can be particularly powerful for tracking water quality changes, understanding pollution dynamics and quantifying groundwater/surfacewater interactions (Rose et al 2021).…”

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