Smart Rock - Low Cost Water Monitoring

The Smart Rock aims to be an effective, low-cost option to make river and stream monitoring more affordable and accessible. Current hydrological monitoring is lacking in most of the world. Monitoring rivers or streams is traditionally costly which leaves it up to governments or larger corporations to collect data. Filling these gaps in data will help us understand fish habits, river health, seasonal trends, and monitor the effects of climate change or other human influence. The Smart Rock is constructed out of laser cut plastic and uses PVC pipe as a water tight enclosure with only 1 L of displacement. The Smart Rock is a configurable open source sensing solution that can adapt to most deployments or user needs. With the ability to monitor pressure (resolution +/- 50 mbar or +/- 100 mbar depending on setup), temperature (resolution +/- 0.8 C), turbidity (qualitative), and dissolved solids (tunable, depends on resolution). Each unit is equipped with sleeping functionality allowing for data to be taken every 20 minutes for over 3 months and stored to a local microSD Card. We hope to someday be able to remotely view the data however transmitting and receiving signals through the water has proven difficult. The Smart Rock offers private and public organizations the opportunity to collect data and educate their communities about their water.