Evaluating Best Management Practices Using Wireless Sensor Networks

Abstract

The increase in urbanization has taking a toll on the quality of streams. Due to this, there has been an increased concentration of pollutants in urban streams. Pollutants including but are not limited to: herbicides, suspended solids, petroleum hydrocarbons, heavy metals, and pesticides. Storm water best management practices (BMPs) are tactics used to manage or lower pollutant loadings. Examples of BMPs are stormwater ponds used for settling particles and wetlands to remove organic pollutants. Currently, stream water quality is evaluated using a technique called grab sampling where the stream is sampled at a determined interval, which could be every week or every other week. However, this method is not the best because it does not capture the short term spikes of sediment or pollutants that occur during events such as rainstorms that could be problematic. In this project, grab sampling and a system of sensors called wireless sensor networks were used to capture real time data. By using these two techniques, the sort term spikes and how they were removed by the environment were able to be observed.