Contamination point source and NMR Sensor Position
UAV-deployable in situ NMR buoy sensor to-be developed by the proposing team form the open-source system developed by the team
Project Funded by: National Science Foundation (NSF)
Total Budget $650k
Project Summary: This project will address the challenges of ensuring quality and quantity of freshwater systems using a novel
integration of next-generation sensors, integrated flood and community modeling, and co-generated
knowledge to guide policy decisions for increasing community resiliency. Specifically, the proposal aims to provide reliable spatial and temporal projections of water quality and quantity, establish a social-technical fragility framework for a community’s critical infrastructure, and promote equitable and sustainable water resource management practices. The project’s next-generation sensors consist of a modular sensing system for the assessment of the dispersion of contaminants in watersheds, streams, and municipal water sources. The system will integrate Unpiloted Aerial Vehicle (UAV)-assisted deployment of affordable sensing nodes; including low-cost and open-source Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectrometers. These novel sensors will be coupled with a data-driven and physics-based system-of-systems modeling approach that will assist decision-makers and stakeholders in monitoring their freshwater system and planning for water emergencies. The project’s testbed locations of the Pearl River Watershed around Jackson, Mississippi, and Santee River Basin in South Carolina, offer strong potential for convergence research on storm-induced contaminants. Together, these locales not only encompass historically underrepresented groups but also confront diverse challenges arising from compound flooding, rapid urbanization, and equity concerns.
The project coalesces advances and expertise in social sciences, public policy, and environmental jus-
tice, with hydrologic and hydraulic modeling, distributed sensing, and embedded systems to create a team focused on the overarching goal of enabling the real-time prediction and assessment of storm-induced contamination of freshwater systems to empower communities to generate and carry-out equitable solutions.
To encourage the translation of research into sustained social good, the team has developed an entrepreneurial plan that leverages the team’s demonstrated success in university-to-industry technology transfer.