Geolux Non-Contact Wave Sensors - NexSens

Case Studies

Freshwater Beach Monitoring in Chicago

Freshwater Beach Monitoring in Chicago

Freshwater Beach Monitoring in Chicago

Chicago’s beachgoers travel from near and far to enjoy Lake Michigan’s cool waters during the summer months. Like ocean beach fronts, resource managers work throughout the year to monitor water quality and environmental conditions on freshwater beaches to ensure that people are able to access the resource safely.Maggie Warren, the water quality project manager for the Chicago Park District, monitors the Lake with support from a local university during the beach season and works to publish the data for beachgoers on a daily basis. Water quality, weather conditions, and environmental hazards are monitored and then communicated to the public via a web portal, social media channels, and physical flags at each of the managed beaches. Challenge: Making Data Available Chicago is a massive urban center with millions of residents and tourists each year, and reaching everyone with valuable information before they head to the beach is essential. Second, Chicago is a large area with 26 miles of beachfront to monitor, which presents a unique opportunity to analyze the water quality along this stretch of water, and turn the information around in a timely manner.

Read Full Article

Safeguarding Southwest Florida with Marine Water Quality Monitoring

Safeguarding Southwest Florida with Marine Water Quality Monitoring

Safeguarding Southwest Florida with Marine Water Quality Monitoring

When the Okeechobee and the Caloosahatchee River were connected by the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) in the 1880s, the region underwent a variety of environmental changes. While water control locks were installed in the 1930s and 1960s, the Sanibel area in Southwest Florida still suffered from deteriorating water quality due to runoff and pollution occurring up the river and surrounding watershed.Incoming nutrient loading caused massive algae drift/stranding events in 2005-2006, according to AJ Martignette, the Laboratory Manager with Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation (SCCF). The water quality shifts also led to the increased frequency and severity of red tides as well as large salinity swings affecting sea grasses in the estuary and freshwater grasses in the river.In order to mitigate some of the damages, the SCCF stepped in to help develop a monitoring program that would help inform the USACE and the South Florida Water Management District when to release water and when to close off the connection between the lake and river. In 2007, what is now referred to as the River, Estuary and Coastal Observing Network, or simply RECON was created. Made up of 11 monitoring sites, the network tracks weather and water quality across Southwest Florida in order to ensure the residents can continue to rely on the aquatic system. Challenge: Environmental Conditions in Southwest Florida

Read Full Article

Tackling Beach Safety with UK's First Bacterial Monitoring Buoy

Tackling Beach Safety with UK's First Bacterial Monitoring Buoy

Tackling Beach Safety with UK's First Bacterial Monitoring Buoy

Beaches full of swimmers are a common sight during the warm summer months. Perhaps never more so than during the 2022 heat wave that swept across Europe and brought record-high temperatures to many areas. With warmer temperatures and more beachgoers looking to cool off with a swim in the sea, water quality at popular beach locations is more important than ever before.In the UK, Proteus Instruments and RS Hydro are working to ensure that swimmers can safely enjoy a bath at their favorite beach with the aid of groundbreaking real-time sensor technology. Buoys equipped with Proteus water quality multi probes are helping to instantly deliver critical information on bacterial loads--data previously only available through lengthy laboratory analysis. This real-time data better informs beach managers and ultimately helps ensure the safety of swimmers. Challenge: Stormwater Overflows and Swim Safety Much like record-breaking summer heat that draws people out to swim, large storm events are also becoming more frequent and powerful. Many areas suffer from undersized and outdated stormwater runoff systems that struggle to handle these events, particularly in areas where a lot of new development is taking place. The result can be direct sewage discharges into surface waters, in some cases near popular recreational sites that can introduce potent bacteria and endanger swimmers.

Read Full Article

|