Data-Acquisition for Coastal Monitoring

Jeff Sober

Chris Fuller

Dr. Cheryl Page

Dr. Jim Bonner

Department of Civil Engineering

Texas A&M University 

Conrad Blucher Institute for Surveying and Science

Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi

        The marine coastal environment is constantly changing and fluctuating. The ability to monitor and log data from coastal waters is imperative to ongoing research on episodic events, both anthropogenic and natural. Many real-time, in-situ sensors are available to detect physical, chemical and biological changes within the water column, but no mobile system has been built that creates synergy of multiple sensors. Current sampling techniques, which typically employ infrequent sample collection at fixed locations, are not sufficient enough to acquire the data needed to investigate the effects of an episodic event. The current mobile sampling paradigms available for profiling water are cumbersome, not truly mobile, and do not merge the data sets. 

        The objective of this research project was to design and build a portable system that interfaces four instruments on the same timestamp and outputs the data to an Excel spreadsheet. The design was to incorporate the idea of user-friendliness by eliminating needed cables and making the data accessible wirelessly. This instrument package records several measurements including as temperature, salinity, colored dissolved organic material (CDOM), chlorophyll, rhodamine, oxygen saturation and depth. This project included the physical construction of an underwater pressure vessel to eliminate cables, a topside box to house wireless access, and a written program that interfaces all the instruments. This system was then tested in the field (Corpus Christi Bay) to ensure that it operated efficiently and according to the design criteria. The unit was successful in the field, and the data was further analyzed.  This mobile unit is able to be quickly deployed to detect a number of water quality parameters within a vertical column of water at any given point in time and space.

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