The problem: Modern society has brought about the severe danger of our environment's degradation, not only through catastrophes (hard risks), but also through "soft risks", which means degrading it slowly step by step leading to disaster.
Both risks must be effectively monitored.
Chemical analyses for water quality measurements are usually carried out in laboratories with exact and expensive instruments, using colorimetry, fluorimetry, photometry,potentiometry and other methods.
For many years the in-situ water monitoring in-the-field has been considered very important.
This can be achieved by developing small and easy-to-maintain smart sensors.
These sensors are able to detect a large spectrum of pollutants that are typical for the monitored region.
The flexibility and long-term reliability of the system is therefore important.
This is why it is very important to develop a general system for in-situ, real time water monitoring, using both terrestrial and spatial monitoring.
This will lead to having permanent control of water resources in Europe.
The project objectivesWARMER's general objective is to create a realtime system for risk management through water monitoring, integrating mixed technologies in the area of semiconductors, analytical chemistry, physics of liquids, micro-mechanical fluidic systems, remote sensing and ICT technology.
This system will be ready to be followed by industrial production and broadly used in water pollution monitoring all over Europe, creating a map of risk in that area.
This general objective is based on several specific objectives.
To obtain such a universal, reliable and easily accessible system of water quality monitoring many partial problems must be solved and combined into one device.
A large number of such smart devices, placed in important water resources all over Europe, will certainly lead to a solution for keeping our environment in a good, healthy and clean condition.
The methodology and key technologies developed/integrated in order to achieve the objectives.
The smart devices will integrate the following parts to create the intelligent device: chemical miniaturised sensors for different pollutants in water, both organic and non-organic; micromechanical systems for micro-fluidic sample handling through the application of innovative analytical technology; modular data processing software for optimum data fusion for different sensors; integration of all new elements in one smart probe; performing a satellite monitoring study of the water surface as a component of an integrated water risk management system. Finally, the system will be tested in laboratories and field conditions and prepared for industrialisation. | The expected resultsA very important feature of this project will be its conclusion on the level of industrial documentation: not only a prototype and a demonstration, but combining all innovative partial solutions into one system ready for future production to be introduced in a short time to the market.
Some elements of the system are purely innovative; some make use of existing software and hardware solutions.
An important result is integrating all these elements into one smart probe and then connecting all the probes within an information network, designed in a user-friendly method with easy access to the monitoring results.
Satellite remote sensing, which is the basis for GMES services, will be used as part of the integrated field experiments where the in situ sensor network will be operated in real water environments.
The satellite monitoring will consist of daily observation of the water surface over large horizontal areas.
The results of project WARMER will fulfil the main objective of ERA: raising the European competitiveness in high technology solutions introduced on the market and benefits for improving the level of life in Europe through reliable risk management of dangerous pollutions of water.
Project Acronym: WARMER
Project Reference:FP6-034472-2006-IST
Contract Type: Specific Targeted Research
Project (STREP)
Start Date: 01/09/2006
Duration: 36 months
End Date: 31/08/2009
Project Cost: 2,449,674 €
Project Funding: 1,826,000 €
|
Participants:
· Systems Technology Advance Spa, SYSTEA
· Politechnika Warszawska, PW (Warsaw University of Technology), WUT
· Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, UAB
· Research Institute of Chemistry of St. Petersburg University, SPU
· Universitaet fuer Bodenkultur Wien, BOKU
· Nansen Environmental and Remote Sensing Center, NERSC
· YSI Hydrodata, YSI
· The University Court of the University of Aberdeen, UNIABDN
· Institute of Electron Technology, IET |
