Water Resources Research Act Program

Details for Project ID FL_2024_Jutla3

Environmental Monitoring of Natural Waters of Florida: Assessment of microbial loads in coastal waters using remote sensing data and machine learning algorithms

Institute: Florida
Year Established: 2024 Start Date: 2024-09-01 End Date: 2025-08-31
Total Federal Funds: $28,067 Total Non-Federal Funds: $13,681

Principal Investigators: Antar Jutla

Project Summary: This proposal aims to make coastal areas more sustainable by improving their resistance to harmful pathogens through monitoring water quality. The main goal is to understand how weather patterns, coastal ecosystems, extreme events, and human activities interact to maintain healthy coastal environments. Florida's coastal regions are perfect for this study of inherent native microbial communities, especially Vibrios spp, which cause diseases, as observed after Hurricane Ian. While it's unlikely we can completely eliminate pathogens of human concerns, predicting their presence can prevent economic losses and save lives. To do this, we plan to develop a new tool called the Vibrio Assessment Tool (VAT). This tool will use statistical and machine learning methods to analyze coastal and weather data, population details, and movement patterns. VAT will help assess the risk of different biological threats over time and space, considering environmental conditions and how pathogens survive and spread in various settings.