Low Cost Harmful Algal Bloom Monitoring

26 Oct 2014

Hi everyone!

This is my first design challenge and got really excited when I first learned my proposal was accepted.

Many thanks Dr. Defeo and sponsors (Texas Instruments, Wurth Electronics, Cisco, element14, Eclipse, Sierra Wireless) for the opportunity.

Never had the chance to use Beaglebone, TI launchpads and other tools in this challenge before,

so I'm excited to start playing with these cool and powerful boards once I receive the challenge kit.

To readers, just few thoughts, this project is not the typical air monitoring system.

This is more on monitoring harmful algal bloom(HAB) in water and the impact of climate change to HAB considering temperature and carbon dioxide in the air.

Suggestions and any help will be much appreciated.

Introduction:

Philippines, located in Asia-pacific, ranks 12^th in the world for marine capture production with 2.127 million tons in 2012 according Food and Agriculture Organization of United Nations. The country has a total of 13 major fishing grounds including Samar Sea in the eastern part. Samar Sea is known for marine shell products and contributes 6,809.7 MT of mussel, about 25% of country’s total mussel production. According to the country’s Bureau of Food and Aquatic Resources (BFAR), mussel production in Samar has greatly decreased from 105,000 MT in 1985. Major reason for this drop in production is high incidence of HAB or Harmful Algal Bloom (commonly known as Red Tide) in the area. Annually, BFAR releases number of advisories preventing harvest and consumption of mussel due to HAB. During HAB, certain marine products including mussels are banned to avoid food poisoning. This also caused several millions of pesos on potential income of Filipino fishermen and losses in revenue for the government.

Harmful Algal Bloom describes coastal phenomenon where high algal biomass or concentration of algae is detected with effects including depleted dissolved oxygen and discoloration in bodies of water (Burlingame et. al, 1992). According to US EPA (Environmental Protection Agency), frequent occurrence of HAB is attributed to climate change along with nutrient pollution. Some climate impacts favoring harmful algae are warmer temperature, higher carbon dioxide levels in the air and water, and changes in rainfall pattern that might lead to more intense storms causing nutrient runoff to coastal areas. HAB cannot be prevented due to uncontrollable causes like climate change, the best option for coastal managers is constant monitoring and timely dissemination of information. Pre mature ban of harvesting marine products means economic loss while late advisory will harm environment, organisms and human that might lead to death. Thus, almost real time HAB information in critical.

Numerous HAB monitoring methodology have already been established from traditional method of water sampling then conducting test on water samples in the laboratory, to modern sophisticated method such as satellite imaging (Tresscot, 2012). In the Philippines, common method is still water sampling and testing in laboratory which wastes so much time for information/advisories to be accessible to public. Modern methods are not considered due to very high cost that can range up to millions of dollars. This project proposal aims to address these problems.

Project Design:

Wireless sensor network will be used to monitor HAB. Sensor nodes enclosed in a buoy moored through an anchor will be deployed in Maqueda bay( center of mussel production in Samar sea). Sensor nodes wirelessly transmit sensor data to a gateway located inland. The gateway is connected to Internet so data can be saved and accessed through a cloud service. Authorities and the public will have access to the data in a form of notifications through a messenger application.