Optimal Location of River Sampling Stations: A Case Study

Usual methods for monitoring and controlling river pollution include the establishment of water pollution monitoring stations located along the length of the river. The point where each station is located (known as sampling point) is of crucial importance if we want to obtain representative information about industrial and domestic pollution in the whole river, not only in the sampling points. In this work, the optimal location of sampling points is studied combining numerical simulation and optimization techniques. Based on a one dimensional system of partial differential equations, a mathematical formulation of the optimization problem is proposed, and it is solved for a real case on Neuse River (North Caroline, USA), where interesting conclusions are derived for the number of water quality sensors and their respective locations.