An automated low-cost monitoring station for suspended sediments and water level.

The use of low-cost sensors, with open-source code, facilitates greater spatial resolution and flexibility of environmental monitoring, thus generating more information and overcoming limitations of traditional commercial sensors. Measurement of water turbidity using submerged sensors can be problematic in that rapid biofouling requires frequent site visits to remove, clean, calibrate and replace the sensor. We therefore designed an automated system using low-cost commercially-available sensors that pumps water from the stream, samples it for turbidity and purges remaining water, leaving the turbidity sensor dry between measurements, thus greatly reducing the biofouling problem and minimizing operation costs.

From dishwasher to river: how to adapt a low-cost turbidimeter for water quality monitoring.

This study presents the process of design and development of a low-cost turbidimeter for monitoring water quality, facilitating rigorous spatial-temporal variability analysis within large-scale hydrological systems. We propose a low-cost optical turbidimeter, modifying the existent SEN0189 turbidity sensor, Arduino boards, and additional sensors for temperature compensation. We compared a low-cost system with high-tech sensors, modifying the original low-cost SEN0189 probe for enhanced environmental performance.