The Development and Implementation of an Automated Coastal Environment Monitoring System

Approximately 40% of the human population lives on or near coastal waters, and that number is expected to increase with time. It is therefore of increasing importance to develop and implement a coastal monitoring system network that can be deployed non-invasively and cost-effectively. A source of high-frequency coastal environmental data that may be gathered and accessed remotely provides an opportunity for an accurate analysis of the highly dynamic coastal ecosystem. Some of the most vital data is the hardest to obtain, that is, highly dynamic parameters that exist during transient events, such as during or shortly after a storm or significant oceanographic event. This kind of data is currently impractical to collect due to the risk it poses to data collectors: e.g. in-person shoreline collection during a hurricane. Such a situation calls for a novel approach to in-situ data collection that eliminates risk. The ideal data collection system needs to be economical, reliable, non-invasive, and capable of surviving highly dynamic coastal environments. Our proposed solution is a fully autonomous, remotely operated, cable-belayed mobile platform. Such a system provides the basis for a multi-point network deployed along an unrestricted section of coastline to provide data on-demand and with minimal on-site maintenance. Remote operation of such a monitoring system also provides the opportunity for the integration of multiple instruments into one data collection “vessel”, allowing any combination of variables of interest to be acquired via customized outfitting. The system developed by Point Road Solutions, LLC seeks to bridge the gap between oceanographers/enthusiasts and the coastal oceans by delivering high-fidelity, high-frequency data on demand. Discussed in this paper: initial design of the system, selection of sensors/instruments, the desired frequency and quality of data collection, and initial deployment and collection. The engineering stage of this project is to create a mobile autonomous platform to transport monitoring device(s) to and from the water repeatedly and reliably. The system chosen is a cable-based platform which will pull itself along a cable anchored between a base station on land and a point offshore in shallow depths which will be anchored to the seabed in a noninvasive way. The platform will locomote under its own power along this cable to enter and exit the water. In parallel, the science payload stage of this project will be to identify, evaluate, and install various data collection sondes and water sample collectors onto the cable-based platform. These sondes and water samplers will be programmed to activate and collect remotely in-sync with platform activation. Because this system is built to be remotely operated, insitu data may be collected without on-site presence. The final stage is multi-system deployment into the real-world environment for active use. In this paper, multiple data collection arrays are identified, compared, and evaluated. The array which meets allowable payload, energy, and dimension requirements defined by the platform specifications will be selected for in-field testing. The current expected challenges will be balancing sampling frequency with on-site maintenance/reliability to ensure quality data and programming existing market sondes for remote usage.