Design and Implementation of a Low-Cost Portable Water Quality Monitoring System

Water is one of the needs with remarkable significance to man and other living things. Water quality management is a concept based on the continuous monitoring of water quality. The monitoring scheme aims to accumulate data to make decisions on water resource descriptions, identify real and emergent issues involving water pollution, formulate priorities, and plan for water quality management. The regularly considered parameters when conducting water quality monitoring are turbidity, pH, temperature, conductivity, dissolved oxygen, chemical oxygen demand, biochemical oxygen demand, ammonia, and metal ions. The usual method employed in capturing these water parameters is the manual collection and sending of samples to a laboratory for detection and analysis. However, this method is impractical in the long run because it is laborious and consumes a considerable amount of human resources. Sensors integrated into a mobile phone application interface can address this issue. This paper aims to design and implement an Internet of Things-based system comprising pH, temperature, and turbidity sensors, which are all integrated into a mobile phone application interface for a water monitoring system. This project utilizes the Bluetooth Standard (IEEE 802.15.1) for communication/transfer of data, while the water quality monitoring system relies on the pH, turbidity, and temperature of the test water.