It’s all about the buoy!
Malmö University student project on data collection aims to safeguarding aquatic ecosystems. From left: Ömer Kolsuz and Firoz-Khan Akbari. Photo: Oscar Svantesson.
To the casual observer passing by the water of the newly developed Malmö harbour, the lone buoy might appear as any other found along the coast, however this is in fact a sophisticated measuring platform with the sole purpose of collecting water quality data.
Launched as a bachelor’s degree project, the monitoring device was constructed by students Firoz-Khan Akbari and Ömer Kolsuz, with the supervision of Fisseha Mekuria and Magnus Krampell. It provides hourly multi-sensor aqua-parameter data that translates to changes in the status of the underwater environment. Just 200 metres away, inside a university building, a transceiver collects the data and relays the information to a database.
“The students have done an excellent job evaluating components suitable to be used in the measurement buoy. The results will hopefully prove to be a good basis for continued research,” says Krampell, a lecturer with the Department of Computer Science and Media Technology at Malmö University.
The project seeks to establish a Water-Oriented Living Lab (WOLL); an autonomous network of sensor-equipped floating buoys that collect vital environmental data including key indicators of water quality such as: pH levels, chlorophyll concentration, water temperature, and electrical conductivity.
Future phases will include additional sensors to monitor nutrients, UV radiation, and even deploy underwater imaging systems for long term biological observation.
A collaboration with Naturum Öresund
The inception of the project started as a multidisciplinary collaborative research project on aqua system parameter monitoring study between the faculties of Technology and Society and Education and Society. Monitoring the local waters is a broader project in collaboration with Naturum Öresund and with ambitions to expand the study to a larger area.
The IoT based aqua-parameter data collection system project plans to develop and integrate cutting-edge digital technologies, such as IoT and machine learning to provide real-time, long-term insight into the health of aquatic ecosystems.
Using emerging digital technologies should be one of the ways to learn how to solve the biodiversity degradation caused by climate change and human activities.
Fisseha Mekuria, senior lecturer at Malmö University
The project received initial funding for the purchase of IoT based aqua-parameter sensor devices from the Sustainable Digitalisation Research Centre (SDRC). At the heart of the system is the autonomous monitoring measuring station powered by solar energy and connected via advanced communication technologies.
The project plan is not only to monitor ecosystems but to also do it sustainably. Researchers are investigating bio-inspired, recyclable sensor materials and energy-harvesting techniques to ensure that the monitoring systems themselves do not contribute to ecological degradation.
“Listening to the natural environment using emerging digital technologies should be one of the ways to learn how to solve the biodiversity degradation caused by climate change and human activities,” says Mekuria, a senior lecturer with the Department of Computer Science and Media Technology.
