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Abstract Variable water quality within buildings is of increasing concern due to public health impacts (e.g., lead,Legionella pneumophila,Naegleria fowleri, disinfection byproducts). Advances in data acquisition and analytics provide the opportunity to monitor real‐time building‐wide water quality variability. Accordingly, the goal of this research was to create a water quality sensor platform including data acquisition, storage, and mining methods able to monitor, and ultimately improve, water quality within buildings. The platform was used to monitor water temperature, pH, conductivity, oxidation–reduction potential, dissolved oxygen, and chlorine using sensors only. Other building data infrastructure, specifically Wi‐Fi logins by occupants, were used to approximate activity rates and associated water use. An advanced machine‐learning technique, gradient boosting machines, predicted the chlorine residuals throughout the building plumbing network better than multivariate linear regression models. Finally, the implications of water quality monitoring on costs, scalability, reliability, human dimensions, regulatory compliance, and future green building designs are considered.
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A comparison of water quality sensor deployment designs in wadeable streams
Abstract The design of infrastructure used for deploying water quality sensors can potentially impact data quality. Despite this, sensor infrastructure design has not been well discussed in the peer‐reviewed literature. Here, we present side‐by‐side measurements from two contrasting designs; a “monopod” consisting of a strut driven into the streambed and a downrigger suspended from an “overhead cable.” We collected measurements over an approximately 6‐month period from two wadeable stream monitoring sites within the National Ecological Observatory Network. In general, we observed minimal differences between measurements, suggesting both designs to be viable options from a data quality perspective under normal operating conditions. However, the monopod design was more susceptible to coming out of the water during low stage and burial by sedimentation. While more expensive and logistically complex to install, the overhead cable design exhibited greater survivability, adjustability, and serviceability. We discuss additional design considerations and potential modifications that we hope will prove useful to other researchers in instrumenting their own sites.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1724433
- PAR ID:
- 10414220
- Publisher / Repository:
- Wiley Blackwell (John Wiley & Sons)
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Limnology and Oceanography: Methods
- Volume:
- 19
- Issue:
- 10
- ISSN:
- 1541-5856
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- p. 673-681
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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