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The Upstate Freshwater Institute has been advancing the technology of remotely controlled water quality monitoring systems. These systems ("robots") consist of an onboard computer and water quality sensors. Presently, UFI maintains two robotic networks, one located within Central New York State (CNY) and the other on the New York City Watershed.
The project's web site: (http://www.ourlake.org)
Central New York Network
The Central New York's Near-Real-Time Surface Water Quality Network was created in 2000 from an USEPA EMPACT Metro Grant. The network originally involved three robotic buoys on Onondaga Lake and the Seneca River. In 2002, the network was extended with an USEPA EMPACT Technology Transfer Grant adding robotic buoys on Otisco and Skaneateles Lakes. The New York STAR Grant Program and the Syracuse Center of Excellence (CoE) in Environmental and Energy Systems provided for an additional buoy on the Seneca River. The Onondaga Lake Partnership provided a sustaining grant for the operation of the Onondaga Lake and two of the Seneca River buoys from 2002-2004. A USEPA grant has provided for continued coverage of these systems. UFI maintains a buoy on Owasco Lake under a contract with the Institute for the Application of Geospatial Technology at Cayuga Community College (IAGT). UFI maintains a robotic monitoring hut on Onondaga Creek through a grant from the US EPA American Indian Environmental Office, to the Onondaga Nation and the Onondaga Lake Cleanup Corporation (OLCC).
The project goals are:
- apply and advance innovative techniques to meet present and future monitoring needs for the aquatic systems within the network
- demonstrate the temporal and spatial patterns found in these diverse freshwater systems
- evaluate the utility of this technology for integration into long-term monitoring and management programs for these, and other, New York State surface water systems
- facilitate the community's understanding of the lakes and their surrounding watersheds.
New York City Watershed Network
The Upstate Freshwater Institute established the New York City Watershed Robitic Network in 2001. The primary application is in the study of particle transport and turbidty involving some of New York City's reservoirs with additional application to Near-Real-Time monitoring and modeling.
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