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Application of Distributed Wireless Chloride Sensors to Environmental Monitoring: Initial Results

Application of Distributed Wireless Chloride Sensors to Environmental Monitoring: Initial Results
Application of Distributed Wireless Chloride Sensors to Environmental Monitoring: Initial Results
Over the next 30 years, it is anticipated that the world will need to source 70% more food to provide for the growing population, and it is likely that a significant amount of this will have to come from irrigated land. However, the quality of irrigation water is also important, and measuring the quality of this water will allow management decisions to be made. Soil salinity is an important parameter in crop yield, and in this paper, we describe a chloride sensor system based on a low-cost robust screen-printed chloride ion sensor, suitable for use in distributed sensor networks. Previously, this sensor has been used in controlled laboratory-based experiments, but here we provide evidence that the sensor will find application outside of the laboratory in field deployments. We report on three experiments using this sensor; one with a soil column, one using a fluvarium, and finally on an experiment in a greenhouse. All these give an insight into the movement of chloride over small distances with high temporal resolution. These initial experiments illustrate that the new sensors are viable and usable with relatively simple electronics, and although subject to ongoing development, they are currently capable of providing new scientific data at high spatial and temporal resolutions. Therefore, we conclude that such chloride sensors, coupled with a distributed wireless network, offer a new paradigm in hydrological monitoring and will enable new applications, such as irrigation using mixtures of potable and brackish water, with significant cost and resource saving.
0018-9456
736 - 743
Harris, Nick
237cfdbd-86e4-4025-869c-c85136f14dfd
Cranny, Andy
2ebc2ccb-7d3e-4a6a-91ac-9f089741939e
Rivers, Mark
d77b505c-0318-4a77-bc88-a6fc38d38660
Smettem, Keith
e9312ec8-9ed5-43a4-89c2-6abbecaa48f2
Barrett-Lennard, Edward
81f42119-f195-4eb6-bffb-6e93cbbea7c5
Harris, Nick
237cfdbd-86e4-4025-869c-c85136f14dfd
Cranny, Andy
2ebc2ccb-7d3e-4a6a-91ac-9f089741939e
Rivers, Mark
d77b505c-0318-4a77-bc88-a6fc38d38660
Smettem, Keith
e9312ec8-9ed5-43a4-89c2-6abbecaa48f2
Barrett-Lennard, Edward
81f42119-f195-4eb6-bffb-6e93cbbea7c5

Harris, Nick, Cranny, Andy, Rivers, Mark, Smettem, Keith and Barrett-Lennard, Edward (2016) Application of Distributed Wireless Chloride Sensors to Environmental Monitoring: Initial Results. IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement, 65 (4), 736 - 743. (doi:10.1109/TIM.2015.2490838).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Over the next 30 years, it is anticipated that the world will need to source 70% more food to provide for the growing population, and it is likely that a significant amount of this will have to come from irrigated land. However, the quality of irrigation water is also important, and measuring the quality of this water will allow management decisions to be made. Soil salinity is an important parameter in crop yield, and in this paper, we describe a chloride sensor system based on a low-cost robust screen-printed chloride ion sensor, suitable for use in distributed sensor networks. Previously, this sensor has been used in controlled laboratory-based experiments, but here we provide evidence that the sensor will find application outside of the laboratory in field deployments. We report on three experiments using this sensor; one with a soil column, one using a fluvarium, and finally on an experiment in a greenhouse. All these give an insight into the movement of chloride over small distances with high temporal resolution. These initial experiments illustrate that the new sensors are viable and usable with relatively simple electronics, and although subject to ongoing development, they are currently capable of providing new scientific data at high spatial and temporal resolutions. Therefore, we conclude that such chloride sensors, coupled with a distributed wireless network, offer a new paradigm in hydrological monitoring and will enable new applications, such as irrigation using mixtures of potable and brackish water, with significant cost and resource saving.

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More information

Accepted/In Press date: 25 September 2015
e-pub ahead of print date: 3 February 2016
Published date: 3 February 2016
Organisations: EEE

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 383324
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/383324
ISSN: 0018-9456
PURE UUID: 0ebc1932-53b4-49f5-94de-2910ceb291b8
ORCID for Nick Harris: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0003-4122-2219

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Date deposited: 26 Oct 2015 10:25
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 02:46

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Contributors

Author: Nick Harris ORCID iD
Author: Andy Cranny
Author: Mark Rivers
Author: Keith Smettem
Author: Edward Barrett-Lennard

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