River water quality monitoring; A new shared insights approach

River Water Quality Monitoring (RWQM) is an important tool in protecting public health, improving our environment, and managing our precious water resources. Previous RWQM approaches are no longer fit for purpose and cannot support the scale of current legislative and regulatory objectives. Recent developments in semi-conductor technologies, artificial intelligence and remote communication make it possible to radically improve RWQM and deliver wide scale positive environmental outcomes.

NUUV, in collaboration with water industry and conservation stakeholders, is leading a team to bring cutting edge 'Industry 4.0' technologies together to deliver a novel solution that addresses the challenge of RWQM. This partnership and insight lead program will unlock value by providing a proactive approach to understanding the sources and impacts of pollution and how to mitigate them.

The new monitoring technology uses light-based measurement techniques to provide accurate data without the use of the harmful chemicals typically used in legacy approaches. Perceived as a disruptive technology, the novel solution under development will, for the first time, make 'Big Data' on complex river systems available to all interested parties. This will support land and resource managers, water users and citizen scientists as we all come together to take care of our environment.

This project will be developed under a program to bring the solution to market in 18 months, deliver value for money from public investment, create employment and cutting-edge technologies. NUUV is proud to be developing this solution in the North West of England and to be supporting the supply chain, and building exciting employment opportunities in leading data, science and engineering disciplines.