A Low-Cost Water Quality Monitoring System for the Ayeyarwady River in Myanmar Using a Participatory Approach
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. Methodology
2.1. The Monitoring Network and the Organisation of Volunteers
2.2. Volunteers Recruitment
2.3. Water Quality Parameters
- Water discharge/level;
- Total suspended solids/turbidity;
- Temperature and pH;
- Electrical conductivity (EC);
- Dissolved oxygen;
- Nitrate, ammonia, and ortho-phosphate; periodically: total N and P.
2.4. Equipment for In Situ Water Quality Measurements and Monthly Lab Measurements
2.5. Water Quality Measurements Using a Mobile Phone Application
2.6. Criteria to Assess the Quality of the Data Collected by the Volunteer
- Completeness is a measure of the actual collected data compared to the originally expected data in the plan of the monitoring network [36]. In our study we define both completeness of volunteer data collections (how often measurements were done) and completeness of gathered data (quantifying the (mal)functioning of the used equipment).
- Accuracy is the degree of agreement between the volunteer measured result and the true or expected result [36].
- Consistency is the data quality dimension in terms of the practices used in collecting the data. It is critical that the data are collected according to the same procedure every time, so that comparisons can be made with the data collected at different times and places or by different people [35]. In our volunteer network, the volunteers were trained by the same person to follow the same procedure of sampling and measurement and to perform the measurement at the same time in order to reach consistency.
3. Results and Analysis of Water Quality Data Collected by Volunteers
3.1. Overall Description of Results
3.2. Analysis of Water Quality Network
3.2.1. Completeness
3.2.2. Accuracy
Quality Control of Automatic App Reading of Field Data
Accuracy of Volunteers’ Results Compared to In Situ Measurements by Lab Technicians
Accuracy of EC and Transparency Measurement of Monthly Grab Samples
3.2.3. Consistency
3.3. Seasonal Water Quality Trends
4. Discussion on Water Quality Data Collected by Volunteers
5. Summary and Conclusions
Supplementary Materials
Author Contributions
Funding
Acknowledgments
Conflicts of Interest
References
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General Water Quality | Dissolved Salt | Nutrients | Organic Matter |
---|---|---|---|
Water discharge/level | Calcium | Nitrate plus Nitrite | Chlorophyll a |
Total suspended solids | Magnesium | Ammonia | |
Temperature | Sodium | Total phosphorus, dissolved | |
pH | Potassium | Total phosphorus, particulate | |
Electrical conductivity | Chloride | Total phosphorus, unfiltered | |
Dissolved oxygen | Sulphate | ||
Alkalinity |
Weekly (Volunteers) Mobile Phone App | Monthly (in Lab) | Yearly In-situ (Low Water Season) Photometer | 6 hourly by Eureka Sensor (only at Station 2) |
---|---|---|---|
Electrical conductivity | Electrical conductivity | Electrical conductivity | Electrical conductivity |
pH | pH | pH | |
Nitrate Nitrogen and Nitrite Nitrogen | Nitrate Nitrogen | ||
Alkalinity | Temperature | ||
Iron | Iron | ||
Transparency | Transparency | Transparency | Turbidity |
Dissolved Oxygen | Dissolved oxygen (%) | ||
Ammonia | |||
Fluoride |
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Thatoe Nwe Win, T.; Bogaard, T.; van de Giesen, N. A Low-Cost Water Quality Monitoring System for the Ayeyarwady River in Myanmar Using a Participatory Approach. Water 2019, 11, 1984. https://doi.org/10.3390/w11101984
Thatoe Nwe Win T, Bogaard T, van de Giesen N. A Low-Cost Water Quality Monitoring System for the Ayeyarwady River in Myanmar Using a Participatory Approach. Water. 2019; 11(10):1984. https://doi.org/10.3390/w11101984
Chicago/Turabian StyleThatoe Nwe Win, Thanda, Thom Bogaard, and Nick van de Giesen. 2019. "A Low-Cost Water Quality Monitoring System for the Ayeyarwady River in Myanmar Using a Participatory Approach" Water 11, no. 10: 1984. https://doi.org/10.3390/w11101984