Water quality analysis using an inexpensive device and a mobile phone

Timo Toivanen; Sampsa Koponen; Ville Kotovirta; Matthieu Molinier; Chengyuan Peng

doi:10.1186/2193-2697-2-9

Water quality analysis using an inexpensive device and a mobile phone

Timo Toivanen (Corresponding Author), Sampsa Koponen, Ville Kotovirta, Matthieu Molinier, Chengyuan Peng

Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE)

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Scientific › peer-review

Abstract

Background
Water transparency is one indicator of water quality. High water transparency is an indication of clean water. A common method for measuring water transparency is Secchi depth. In this paper, we present an approach to water quality (Secchi depth and turbidity) monitoring using mobile phones and a small device designed for water quality measurements.

Results
The water quality parameters were analysed automatically from the images taken using mobile phone cameras. During the summer of 2012, we conducted a field trial in which 100 test users gathered 1,146 observations using the system. The results of the automatic Secchi3000 depth analysis were compared against reference measurements, and they indicate that our approach can be used for quantitative water quality measurements.

Conclusions
Results show that overall the system performs well. Both Secchi depth and turbidity are estimated with excellent or good accuracy when the measurements are taken with care.

Original language	English
Article number	9
Number of pages	6
Journal	Environmental Systems Research
Volume	2
Issue number	9
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1186/2193-2697-2-9
Publication status	Published - 2013
MoE publication type	A1 Journal article-refereed

Keywords

Mobile application
Participatory sensing
Secchi depth
Water quality

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10.1186/2193-2697-2-9Licence: CC BY

Cite this

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title = "Water quality analysis using an inexpensive device and a mobile phone",

abstract = "BackgroundWater transparency is one indicator of water quality. High water transparency is an indication of clean water. A common method for measuring water transparency is Secchi depth. In this paper, we present an approach to water quality (Secchi depth and turbidity) monitoring using mobile phones and a small device designed for water quality measurements.ResultsThe water quality parameters were analysed automatically from the images taken using mobile phone cameras. During the summer of 2012, we conducted a field trial in which 100 test users gathered 1,146 observations using the system. The results of the automatic Secchi3000 depth analysis were compared against reference measurements, and they indicate that our approach can be used for quantitative water quality measurements.ConclusionsResults show that overall the system performs well. Both Secchi depth and turbidity are estimated with excellent or good accuracy when the measurements are taken with care.",

keywords = "Mobile application, Participatory sensing, Secchi depth, Water quality",

author = "Timo Toivanen and Sampsa Koponen and Ville Kotovirta and Matthieu Molinier and Chengyuan Peng",

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T1 - Water quality analysis using an inexpensive device and a mobile phone

AU - Toivanen, Timo

AU - Koponen, Sampsa

AU - Kotovirta, Ville

AU - Molinier, Matthieu

AU - Peng, Chengyuan

N1 - Project code: 70970

PY - 2013

Y1 - 2013

N2 - BackgroundWater transparency is one indicator of water quality. High water transparency is an indication of clean water. A common method for measuring water transparency is Secchi depth. In this paper, we present an approach to water quality (Secchi depth and turbidity) monitoring using mobile phones and a small device designed for water quality measurements.ResultsThe water quality parameters were analysed automatically from the images taken using mobile phone cameras. During the summer of 2012, we conducted a field trial in which 100 test users gathered 1,146 observations using the system. The results of the automatic Secchi3000 depth analysis were compared against reference measurements, and they indicate that our approach can be used for quantitative water quality measurements.ConclusionsResults show that overall the system performs well. Both Secchi depth and turbidity are estimated with excellent or good accuracy when the measurements are taken with care.

AB - BackgroundWater transparency is one indicator of water quality. High water transparency is an indication of clean water. A common method for measuring water transparency is Secchi depth. In this paper, we present an approach to water quality (Secchi depth and turbidity) monitoring using mobile phones and a small device designed for water quality measurements.ResultsThe water quality parameters were analysed automatically from the images taken using mobile phone cameras. During the summer of 2012, we conducted a field trial in which 100 test users gathered 1,146 observations using the system. The results of the automatic Secchi3000 depth analysis were compared against reference measurements, and they indicate that our approach can be used for quantitative water quality measurements.ConclusionsResults show that overall the system performs well. Both Secchi depth and turbidity are estimated with excellent or good accuracy when the measurements are taken with care.

KW - Mobile application

KW - Participatory sensing

KW - Secchi depth

KW - Water quality

U2 - 10.1186/2193-2697-2-9

DO - 10.1186/2193-2697-2-9

M3 - Article

SN - 2193-2697

VL - 2

JO - Environmental Systems Research

JF - Environmental Systems Research

IS - 9

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Water quality analysis using an inexpensive device and a mobile phone

Abstract

Keywords

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