Poole Harbour Challenge: Monitoring Water Quality Changes

Poole Harbour is one of the world’s largest natural harbours and one of the most beautiful places in the British Isles; recognised internationally as an important area for nature conservation. Most of the foreshore is designated an SPA (special protection area) under the European Habitats Directive and sites around the harbour are also designated as areas of outstanding natural beauty whilst the southern shores have Heritage Coast status. This challenge provides LPWAN innovators a real world opportunity to develop automated water quality monitoring solutions that can be utilised shoreside or on water-based assets such as buoys, posts and platforms.

There is a responsibility to maintain the condition of these protected sites. A major negative impact on the harbour is the concentration of damaging nutrients flowing from agriculture and sewerage in the rivers draining into the harbour. This causes eutrophication and a build-up of algae which detrimentally changes the substrate on which a wide range of species, including birds and invertebrates are dependent. This challenge requires both the management of the harbour and the rivers real-time monitoring and analysis of upstream water quality fluctuations.

The challenge

The challenge is to develop an automated water quality monitoring LPWAN solution that can be utilised shoreside or on water-based assets such as buoys, posts and platforms at Poole Harbour.

BCP (Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole) Council and Poole Harbour Commissioners require solutions that can provide:

• Measurement of nitrate, dissolved oxygen and phosphate concentrations with suspended solids
• Measurement of E.coli levels in the water
• Hourly measurement frequency taking consideration of tidal, weekly and annual fluctuation cycles
• The mapping of changes for a range of points around the harbour
• Access to data in real-time
• Analyse the correlation of the data with other parameters associated with the external environment or management regimes

The council and the commissioners will provide assets within the harbour for the purposes of undertaking prototype testing and trials of solutions.

Why should you get involved?

This is a unique opportunity to test and trial IoT solutions in a real world environment. The Poole Harbour authorities are making available various marine structures, such as navigation buoys to support the trial.

There will be a contribution of £8,000 towards the development of the successful solution.

Who should apply?

Startups and scaleups interested in developing and commercialising internet of things (IoT) solutions and solving a real-world challenge in a public environment should get involved.

Additional Information

Selected applicants will be invited to pitch their proposals to a panel from BCP Council and Poole Harbour.

28 February – closing date for applications
2 March (13.00 – 17.00) – workshop to allow applicants the opportunity for Q&A and understand the challenge in greater detail.
16 March – closing date for submission of challenge proposals
30 March (10.00 – 15.00) – finalists presentations and selection
1 April – Announcement of winning solution

Things Connected Bournemouth is an initiative by Digital Catapult to support UK businesses using LPWAN technologies. It is a free-to-use network for the experimenting and prototyping of new IoT products and services that can benefit from the unique features of LPWAN technology.

Interested startups should register interest in the open call using the form below – the full documentation on this challenge will be made available to applicants on completion of registration.

To find out more about the programme please contact [email protected]

To learn how to get involved, please register below.