Water Resources Research Act Program

Details for Project ID DC_2025_Blunk

Advanced Monitoring Tools for Urban Aquaponics Water Management

Institute: District of Columbia
Year Established: 2025 Start Date: 2026-01-01 End Date: 2026-12-31
Total Federal Funds: $15,000 Total Non-Federal Funds: $15,520

Principal Investigators: Andy Blunk

Project Summary: Washington, D.C. is facing two major water problems: poor water quality and high water use. Pollution from buildings, old pipes, and factories threatens public health and the environment, particularly affecting the Anacostia River. Managing the city's water also uses a lot of energy, which contributes to greenhouse gas emissions. To help with food insecurity, urban farming is growing, but traditional farming methods can worsen water quality by using too much water and causing nutrient runoff. Aquaponics, which combines fish and plant farming in a closed system, could be a better option, but it struggles with maintaining good water quality for fish. This project will test different remote monitoring systems to control water quality in small aquaponic setups at the University of the District of Columbia. Over nine months, four monitoring systems will be compared to see which works best. The goal is to find tools that help local farmers adopt aquaponics more easily, improving food security and environmental health in the city. The project will also create guides and share data to help others replicate the findings.