Real-Time Water Quality Monitoring: Benefits for decision making

Due to worsening threats from climate change, pollution, and habitat fragmentation, there is an urgent need for data on watersheds to make effective decisions to protect their health. Water quality monitoring programs across Canada, which are seeking to meet this data need, have access to an expanding array of tools and technologies. In particular, automated systems for high-frequency and networked water quality monitoring have the potential to enhance data-driven decision making by offering larger volumes of data in near real time. However, these systems also come with their own sets of limitations and can introduce new technical, financial, and labour requirements.

To deepen our understanding of these potential opportunities and limitations, the International Institute for Sustainable Development’s Experimental Lakes Area and Aquatic Life Ltd. are exploring the use of networked systems to enable remote, real-time water quality monitoring in the Winnipeg River basin as part of the Adaptive Monitoring project. Drawing on a review of supporting literature and two case studies from our work in the Winnipeg River basin, this report explores the potential benefits and costs of introducing automated sensor systems to a monitoring initiative, with a particular focus on networked instruments producing real-time data.