Development and implementation of low cost salinity and temperature monitoring system for mangrove forest

Mangrove population has greatly reduced in several countries such as Philippines due to different factors such as clearing, overharvesting and water quality changes. The third factor includes the high level of salinity which is a great threat for the mangroves. With that, the researcher of this study came up with a low cost salinity monitoring system with temperature sensors. The said sensor node determines whether the salinity of the water exceeds the acceptable level (10,000 ppm) and upon encountered, the floodgates represented by the water pump will be controlled to open for the freshwater to flow from reservoirs. The flow of freshwater will stop by closing the floodgates as the sensor nodes determine that salinity level is now reduced to the acceptable ppm range. The low cost salinity sensor is based on the magnetic induction concept of the two sets of coils which are in toroidal and solenoid in forms. Zigbee will be the communications network of the sensors, the Arduino microcontroller and the water pump control system. System was deployed in two areas: the mangrove forest and non-mangrove located in Barangay Calibuyo, Tanza, Cavite. With the results, it's proven that the created salinity sensor has correlated results with the commercial one. Also, temperature has inverse relationship with the water salinity. Lastly, the control of the motor based on the threshold has proven 100% working as checked with different water samples.