Water Resources Research Act Program

Details for Project ID 2008IN242B

Wireless Monitoring of the Wabash River

Institute: Indiana
Year Established: 2008 Start Date: 2008-03-01 End Date: 2009-02-28
Total Federal Funds: $10,000 Total Non-Federal Funds: $20,004

Principal Investigators: Chad Jafvert

Abstract: The purpose of this project is to purchase and install water quality monitoring equipment and instrumentation on the Wabash River, near Lafayette, IN. The Wabash River watershed drains approximately two-thirds of the state of Indiana and is the longest non-dammed river reach east of the Mississippi River. The objective of this proposal is to: (1) employ innovative wireless continuous monitoring strategies for assessing water quality at remote locations, (2) train students in sensor and wireless technologies as they relate to environmental assessment and protection, and (3) leverage project infrastructure and results to attract additional resources to the State of Indiana to monitor environmental parameters at a broad scale (i.e., watershed level). The outcome of this project will be a water quality monitoring station installed on the Wabash River that can be used to monitor various physical, chemical, and biological properties of the water in either real-time or via automated sampling.