Water quality mapping

Ever heard of an Arduino? It’s a small computer that allows you to make things…new things. We’ve combined an Arduino with water quality probes, a cell phone, and our GIS server to create a real-time water quality mapping system.

To use it, we strap it to the front of a kayak and paddle down a stream or river (rough, right?). As we paddle, the unit takes a measurement every 15 seconds, adds a GPS location, and uploads the information to our servers. We can then analyze and/or map it.

This spring, the device was part of a collaborative project called “Testing the Waters” with the Rock River Coalition, a local water quality NGO.