Recent advances in information and communications technology (ICT) and sensor technology for monitoring water quality

Water quality control and management in water resources are important for providing clean and safe water to the public. Due to their large area, collection, analysis, and management of a large amount of water quality data are essential. Water quality data are collected mainly by manual field sampling, and recently real-time sensor monitoring has been increasingly applied for effcient data collection. However, real-time sensor monitoring still relies on only a few parameters, such as water level, velocity, temperature, conductivity, dissolved oxygen (DO), and pH. Although advanced sensing technologies, such as hyperspectral images (HSI), have been used for the areal monitoring of algal bloom, other water quality sensors for organic compounds, phosphorus (P), and nitrogen (N) still need to be further developed and improved for field applications. The utilization of information and communications technology (ICT) with sensor technology shows great potential for the monitoring, transmission, and management of field water-quality data and thus for developing effective water quality management. This paper presents a review of the recent advances in ICT and field applicable sensor technology for monitoring water quality, mainly focusing on water resources, such as rivers and lakes, and discusses the challenges and future directions.