WISENET
www.wisenet.uu.se

APPLICATION PROJECTS: WATER SENSING

With the impact from mankind on the environment there is an increased demand for monitoring of water in lakes, rivers, and coastal waters. We need to understand more about the impact on submarine life and on water as an clean energy resource (waves and streams).

Our water bodies are poorly monitored, and one reason for this is the high cost for monitoring. A modern research vessel at sea costs at least 10,000¤ per day. Bad weather and technical problems are common reasons for poor efficiency in open-sea cruises.

Monitoring freshwater resources usually do not require large research vessels, but the number of lakes and rivers are so high, that costs and logistic limitations will be too high if based on the traditional way of field work. Wireless sensor networks can dramatically reduce these cost factors.

The submarine world is, in large, unknown to us, because we have not been able to study marine water volumes in high resolution. Most studies have been restricted to near the surface.One way to survey these vast volumes is with a large numbers of buoys with sensors communicating wirelessly. It is even possible to use small autonomous submarine vessels with sensors.

The marine environment is a challenge for wireless sensor networks. There is a need to save energy and possibly also generate energy since it is very costly to replace batteries. The nodes need to be reliable and secure for the same reason. On the other hand there is no size restrictions on nodes. WISENET currently participates with Stockholm University and Umeå Marine Sciences Centre on a project wireless sensor network systems on buoys and deep sea systems.