Re: [PLOTS] A Lake/Boat Monitoring RIFFLE?

[Liz Barry]

Hi Paul!
I'm adding the water quality group to this thread also.

On Feb 16, 2015 6:03 PM, "LePirateVert" <lepira...@i-design.qc.ca> wrote:

A great big hello to the PUBLICLAB community,

I am new to your group and would appreciate a few directions ;-) This noobie thanks you in advance!

Fantastic initiative! Right up with INSTRUCTABLES, this has got to be one of the most exciting things I have seen on the internet so far.

What lead me to your group are incredible projects like RIFFLE. Bravo! Right on!

Every year, the number, the size and the power of recreational watercraft increases on our lakes.

On my lake, Lac Sergent (more like a pond in fact, half a mile wide, 50% of which is 6 feet deep or less), we counted over 250 motorboats.

On a long weekend, the water turns brown and covered with chopped up weeds and millfoil, topped with an oil scum vinaigrette.

Swimming in the summer heat has become an activity of the past, you have to take a shower if you immerse yourself.

There are periods now where the lake stinks of rotting fish. Cyanobacterial blooms are more and more frequent and intense.

Like many, I have decided that it is time to try to do something about it.

So, I am now a volunteer with the COALITION FOR SUSTAINABLE AND RESPONSIBLE BOATING in here Canada.

We are studying the effects of uncontrolled recreational boating on lakes (shoreline erosion, stirring bottom sediments, noise, pollution...) with Universities like UQAM.

We would like to find solutions so that boaters can continue to boat responsibly and we can protect our lakes for activities such swimming and fishing.

We would like our federal government here to introduce environmental protection legislation for just this and allow town councils to act (they presently cannot, federal jurisdiction)

We would like to develop a sort of boat/lake monitoring RIFFLE.

• The sensor could be anchored just below the surface (say 1 meter, hidden below the surface and the propeller line)
  
• It could also listen for boat activity (that distinctive high pitched mechanical whine of watercraft) and log "events"
  
• It could continuously monitor wave height on the surface (sonar, echo, doppler, whatever), particularly after "events"
• It could continuously monitor water transparency, that is turbidity (transmission) and haze (reflection)
• It could monitor temperature and other useful parameters (conductivity or other related parameters of interest. Suggestions?)
• The data could log to an SD card in XML format or be transmitted RF or by wire to shore to a computer.
• Events could trigger a saving to disk of "events" along with a webcam feed for vessel identification.

I did come across the opensourceceanwavebuoy project that floats on the surface. One of your members posted on that site suggesting to contribute to yours. Bravo.

Of course, the ideal RIFFLE would be more discrete and exposed than that, that is, hidden and out of sight, under the surface, from a fish's point of view.

Firstly, we would like to monitor boat activities and correlate that to effects on water quality over time because. Unfortunately, most of the data and studies so far are punctual or anecdotal.

For example, if we see that turbidity increases after boat passages in restricted areas and that it subsides 24 hours later repeatedly during the season, we determine a cause-effect relationship.

We can then relate that to phosphorus levels we measure. Phosphorus is responsible for plant growth, algae and cyanobacterial blooms.

We hope to prove the environmental cost of abuse from boating misuse.

Secondly, such data will be most useful to convince boaters to the ill effects of improper boat use in shallow areas or too close to shore (voluntary measures and public education).

If heights waves after boating events exceed levels that will cause shoreline erosion, we will have useful documentation to prove this.

Maybe it could sound off an alarm, giving the boater a bit of "feedback", not that he would necessarily hear it over his motor...

Thirdly, it ultimately may serve for enforcement, that is, if some day we have a legislative structure in place for that.

In our many efforts in Quebec lakes so far, we have found that 90% of people care for their lake and abide by the guidelines, but there is always that 10% that needs a police officer to tap on their shoulder.

We think that the answer to these problems will be a mix of many strategies.

And of course, we would like to share everything we do with the PUBLICLAB and the COMMONS.

Like you, this is part of our DNA. As transparent as the water in our lake we would like once again.

Please advise. All types of inputs are welcome, albeit technical, philosophical or otherwise.

And if I am off topic, please let me know. Let me know your code that I will abide by respectfully.

Thanks in advance, it takes great generous people like you to make the World a better place.

Kind regards,

Paul,

in Canada eh

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[George Gallant]

Paul,

I live on  a similar sized pond in Maine and have an interest in monitoring water quality. Last summer I tried temperature logging without much success. I did purchase a 3D printer for the purpose of printing waterproof enclosures and hope to be monitoring once the ice is out. My electronics consist of an Arduindo compatible CPU board, RFM69HW radio, and DS18B20 temperature sensors. Most of my failures were related to the mechanical chassis leaking.

My second project (going nowhere fast) is a turbidity monitor. Would be great to exchange ideas. Would be better yet if it came under the Riffle project.

George

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