Real-time Monitoring - Through Swell and High Water - Darren Hanson

Estuaries on the west coast of Wales represent some of the most challenging conditions for environmental monitoring. However, staff from monitoring solutions company YSI Hydrodata and Environment Agency specialists have combined to develop a solar powered water quality monitoring pontoon which is providing 24/7 data that previously would have been an impossible dream.

Background

The pontoon was installed in March 2010 and the Environment Agency’s Ian Myers says "a number of technical innovations have been deployed on the pontoon which have helped to deliver an unprecedented volume of water quality data that has made a major contribution to our understanding of water quality conditions in the area."

YSI water quality monitoring buoys are in operation all over the world. However, Environment Agency staff needed to monitor estuarine water quality continuously in a particularly challenging environment - the Burry Inlet near Llanelli in south west Wales. With a tidal range of over 8 metres in a narrow channel, a pontoon was chosen to reduce drag in high flows and to provide the monitoring equipment with greater protection.

Commenting on the challenging conditions, YSI’s Darren Hanson says "We would normally recommend a ’YSI Pisces’ catamaran for applications such as this, but Environment Agency Evidence staff were able to combine existing resources with a great deal of ingenuity to save money on the platform. This meant that a greater proportion of the budget could be allocated to the variety of equipment and instrumentation supported on the platform"