COastal MONitoring SENSor system

The need to detect pollution events in coastal waters is becoming critical in maintaining healthy aquatic ecosystems. Due to their characteristically short durations combined with infrequent sampling, the probability of detecting these events is extremely low and as such they usually go undetected.
In open ocean environments, satellites are the only viable (yet expensive) communication means. However, in coastal areas, other technologies are available that offer significant advantages in terms of cost, throughput, and latency. In particular, for applications in which a limited number of small messages are adequate (such as in situ coastal water quality monitoring), Long Range (LoRa) communication technology is a very inexpensive solution that can reach considerable distances from the coastline. These systems do not require a local user to operate and transmit data, as they can enable long-term observations of coastal waters based on a large network of automated devices and sensors.
The CoMonSENSE project will develop and demonstrate a complete LoRa-sensor package for the effective detection of coastal pollution events, where information is gathered at a sensing platform, communicated to the network server and from there sent to a specific applications server – all in an automated and wireless manner. The system will be based on a LoRaWAN protocol and developed in collaboration with Aalborg University Copenhagen (AAU), before being demonstrated along Danish coastline.
The main value output is a more effective data collection system with an improved communication between near-real time sensors and data visualization and analysis system. These results can benefit industrial partners in water technology sectors both in terms of technology development and applications (e.g. Berring Data Collective, Den Blå Planet, HAVSANS, ARUP), where long-term remote data collection is required.