Now it is possible to measure water quality within river networks with precision and speed at a lower cost than traditional methods. AquaBOTOak Ridge National Laboratory developed the aquatic drone,.
AquaBOT is a handheld device that measures water quality indicators like temperature, dissolved oxygen, and nitrate along mid-sized streams.
Natalie Griffiths from ORNL said that drones give a more detailed picture than manual measurements of a few places. AquaBOT allows us to identify areas where pollutants like excess fertilizer are flowing into waterways. This is the first step towards understanding water quality and finding solutions.
AquaBOT is being used at Drake University by Griffiths and her colleagues to study streams in Iowa croplands. This allows them to evaluate potential sustainability strategies with bioenergy crops. Her team is also using AquaBOT to measure climate warming methane emissions from reservoirs.
Original publication byOak Ridge National Laboratory.
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