A new sensor lets rivers send instant alerts to warn people of pollution.
You’ve gotten plenty of emails from your mom, and maybe even a few from dear old grandma. But have you ever received a message from a river?
Now, Ireland’s River Lee is sending out regular updates, thanks to wireless technology. In a program called the DEPLOY project, researchers have outfitted spots in the river with sensors that can detect pollution levels.
Instead of requiring scientists to collect water samples several times a day, the government can now monitor pollution levels within the water, and respond immediately if any toxic contaminants enter the stream. This makes it much easier for researchers, water managers, and biologists to protect wildlife, since problems can be discovered before species are negatively affected.
People in the area can also receive free reports from the river, so that they can find out whether the water is safe for swimming or boating on a certain day.
“You can build a story about what is actually happening with the water,” Paul Gaughan, a project coordinator at Galway’s Marine Institute, told National Geographic News.
The DEPLOY project is not the only wireless environmental monitoring system: similar programs have been launched in thousands of sites around the U.S. While the American environmental monitoring programs haven’t been opened to the everyday person just yet, it’s easy to predict a world in which you could receive alerts to your iPhone if the lake near your house isn’t fit for swimming in. The technology should help to make us more aware of the pollutants that surround us—which just might get us all a little more involved with trying to clean up our world.