Real-time detection of water pollution using biosensors and live animal behaviour models

Abstract

Victoria faces a number of significant issues related to the quality of its inland waterways and estuaries with 80% of them being reported to be in a very poor to moderate condition. Catchment management authorities and water authorities are responsible for the condition of waterways and estuaries; however, existing monitoring systems are expensive, limited and consequently in many cases cannot identify the substances causing the damage. As a result, many once-popular waterholes and rivers have experienced degraded in-stream habitat and declining fauna populations. This has resulted in a negative effect on the many industries that rely heavily on waterways for productivity. Recreational activities on Victoria waterways alone are worth $368 million per year, whilst tourism and fishing expenditure, also dependent on river health, generate of the order of $533 million annually.

Existing processes for monitoring the health of the waterways and contamination events are expensive and human resource intensive requiring individuals to go to rivers and collect samples for chemical analysis and measurement of toxicity. This is very much after the fact. In contrast, behavioural and physiological responses of wildlife to pollution are sensitive, immediate and relatively simple to monitor. However, they require transmission and analysis of high volumes of data, which has so far limited their utility in field applications. In contrast to these approaches, catchment managers require affordable diagnostic tools with rapid response times to effectively identify and manage pollution events. The Victorian Department of Business and Innovation (DBI) has funded the ALARM project (http://capim.com.au/index.php?page=prac) to develop such a real time detection infrastructure.