Remote Sensing in Aquatic Systems

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REMOTE HEAVY METAL MONITORING OF THE ENVIRONMENT
Monitoring of environmental parameters are in general carried out with field sampling followed by analyses in a laboratory.

There are very limited possibilities to perform remote and automatic monitoring of waters and effluents. The available methods are restricted to be useful to measure simple parameters like electrical conductivity, pH-values, turbidity and temperature only.

The advantages by doing more comprehensive measurements with other important parameters are obvious. This is not on only due to financial reasons, but also to have improved methods enabling ones to act immediately in case of errors and illegal activities. An additional advantage is that the results immediately can be put available on the Internet for the general public.

The limited number of chemical compounds to be monitored remotely is due to the following requirements:

• The need of long-term stability of the measuring system without personal presence
• The system has to be sufficiently sensitive for the actual purpose
• The equipment for environmental surveillance cannot by itself be a source or a risk for pollution
• The equipment cannot be too expensive, this to enable several installations. Costly equipment in remote areas, without attendance over a long time, is also representing a great risk for theft and destruction

Remote monitoring of heavy metals like copper, cadmium, mercury etc. is of special importance. For that reason a very extensive research has been carried out internationally to develop suitable methods as no acceptable methods were available.

We are proud to present the only acceptable method for remote and automatic monitoring of heavy metals. This has been verified over a long time and is now available commercially via our company SensAqua AS.

Obviously, quality assurance of the results from the remote systems is crucial. Bringing samples to laboratories for control measurements can do this. A practical way is then to combine such sampling with the regular maintenance.