Water is a precious resource to both humans and marine ecosystems. However, industrialization and urbanization within the past century has brought water pollution to the forefront of potential threats regarding bays and oceans (from researchgate.net). Nowadays, bays and oceans have many potential sources of contaminants which are often nonpoint near urban areas. Since storm drains are untreated and often untested, any pollutants generated by land-based activities are often directly discharged into bays where they negatively affect the coastal and underwater ecosystem health. With the presence of a water quality monitoring system, sources of contaminants would become apparent. Useful data would be readily available, and this data could be used to serve as evidence in favor of improving environmental awareness in these urban areas. Combining local efforts and new policies in the face of future threats will ultimately lead to improvements in bay and ocean health.

My solution aimed to forge the connection between land-based actions to their environmental and biological impacts offshore. Current solutions, such as the Saildrone, Wave Glider, and WPTO’s system have mastered the act of long term data collection over a wide range of locations. However, they fall short in their scope of data collection, with each only being able to gather data at a single point at any given time. My solution implemented several data collection units across a targeted area.  With the addition of the user interface such as the one in my design, water quality trends became more apparent across these areas, and predictions became more accurate. This additional visualization could be used to better inform people of both current conditions and likely future outcomes. The system itself utilized sustainable power sources such as solar and potentially tidal energy, unlike many existing systems.