Water risk management in Europe (WARMER)

The project aims to create an extended system for on-line water monitoring with main purpose of risk management, integrating mixed technology in the areas of semiconductors, analytical chemistry, micro-mechanical fluidic systems, ICT, remote sensing and extensive networking of environmental water monitoring data. The innovative idea is to develop an integrate an innovative field deployable monitoring system working on different innovative sensors, ranging from CHEMFETs, miniaturised potentiometric, voltammetric sensors and biosensors in industrial way, ready to be later improved for mass production. The system will be ready to be connected in a large network with of terrestrial "in situ" sensors and satellite remote sensing data. This new measuring device will be integrated with conventional multiparametric probes and flow sensors, to obtain the largest multiparametric detection capability requested by the current European water directives. The proposed system will enable creation of a European-wide water monitoring and risk management system, which would handle both "hard risk" (catastrophic changes in water quality) as "soft risk" (slow, but dangerous). The in situ monitoring system will form a network of nodes, consisting of a unified hardware platform using wireless modules and TCP-IP technology to allow the maximum flexibility. Satellite remote sensing of water parameters will be integrated with the in situ monitoring network in order to provide large-scale synoptic observation of water quality. In GMES, satellite observations need to be supported by in situ observation for validation of the satellite data and for observation of a wide range of biological and chemical parameters, which cannot be observed from space. An extensive laboratory validation followed by field experiments including integration with remote sensing data will be performed.