Design and development of a continuous water quality monitoring buoy for health monitoring of river Ganga

Abstract

Real-time monitoring of water quality in the river Ganga and other Indian rivers is crucial to determining its suitability for drinking and other usages across the seasons and round the clock. For this, a structurally strong and hydrostatically stable floating observation center is required to house all the sensors and related equipment. This paper explains the design process for such a buoy platform that can house an array of water quality sensors powered by hybrid energy harvesting systems. Sensors are connected to a wireless sensor network (WSN) system that transfers data to a web-based platform, where we can monitor and analyze our data for the purpose of hazard prediction. Computational analysis has been carried out for the observatory body to ascertain its structural integrity and hydrostatic stability at small and large angles of inclination. The buoy design is based on various requirements specific to Indian rivers at different locations from the mid-course to the confluence. It is important that the system be modular and portable for use in a constantly changing river/water environment. A full-scale functional prototype has been developed, and field testing has been carried out to bring out the efficacy of the proposed system. Also, the WSN system collected real-time water quality data that have been validated with laboratory-based experiments. The establishment of a network of low-cost river/water health monitoring system will further initiate the large-scale data collection and help create digital twins of the Indian rivers.