Keynote address I: Sensing issues in the automated monitoring of the quality of drinking water

This talk will address several important aspects of sensing and representation of water quality in a spatiotemporal manner for automation of the entire process. The addressed key issues are: (a) Automated and remote sensing issues of water quality monitoring; (b) Signal processing and sensory data process; (c) Development of an effective water quality index; (d) Network architecture of the water quality monitoring system. Water comes into contact with minerals, salt, vegetation, toxic chemicals, and biological waste, and is never completely pure. Many of these contaminants may pose health risks. About 3.4 million people die every year in the world due to waterborne diseases, and poor sanitation. Regular monitoring of the quality of drinking water and taking proper actions to improve its quality is important for healthy living. This is particularly important in rural areas and underprivileged communities. Our proposed system consists of multiple sensor nodes that are geographically distributed and have the capability of wireless communication to local microcontrollers. After some basic processing, the gathered information is transmitted by the microcontrollers to a central assessment unit. The system analyzes the geographic and temporal information and provides advisories, warnings, trends, forecasts, and suggested actions. Robustness, speed, low-cost, and user-friendliness are key features of the developed system. The talk will present theoretical, research, and practical aspects of the proposed developments.