SCHeMA
Integrated In-Situ Chemical MApping Probes
Marine environments are vulnerable ecosystems, influenced by a diversity of anthropogenic
constituents, natural substances, and organisms that may have adverse effects on their
fragile equilibrium, their living resources, and ultimately, on human health. Identification
of relevant types of hazards at the appropriate temporal and spatial scale is thus crucial
to detect their sources, to understand the processes governing their magnitude and
distribution, and to evaluate and manage their risks and consequences preventing marine
economic losses. |
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SCHeMA's overall aim is to develop, apply and
field validate an autonomous marine water
quality observatory system deployable from
various facilities. The SCHeMA system will consist
of a plug-and-play adaptive wireless chemical
sensor probe network. This will be used as
a front-end for gathering detailed spatial and
temporal information on water quality and status,
based on a range of hazardous compounds.
SCHeMA will particularly focus on the detection
of: mercury, cadmium, lead, arsenic and copper
bioavailable metal fractions; nitrate, nitrite,
and phosphate nutrients; species relevant to | the carbon cycle; volatile organic compounds
(VOCs); biotoxins and potentially toxic algae
species. An ad-hoc ICT wireless networking solution
will allow remote control of data transfer
and system reconfiguration. Gathered data will
be reported back to a web-based data information
system for data logging, storage, standardization,
evaluation, modelling, and user-friendly
accessibility. The SCHeMA sensing tools will
be optimised throughout their development
via short field tests and inter-comparison with
data obtained using established laboratory
techniques. |
Long-term field applications and demonstration will be performed at Atlantic and
Mediterranean coastal areas. The expected project
outcome is three-fold: (1) product-based –
it will develop a suite of powerful field-validated
submersible chemical sensor probes and a
smart multi-sensor probe Hardware/Software
interface platform ready for post-industrial production;
(2) applied – it will enable water quality
assessment of various marine ecosystems
and identification of the critical parameters
considered relevant for successful management
of water quality; (3) scientific – it will lead
to a better understanding of the bio-geochemical
processes occurring in selected EU coastal
areas. Such steps will be critical to predict the
impact of land-based pollution in vulnerable
coastal ecosystems, and to develop knowledgebased
policies for the protection of the marine
environment. |
The SCHeMA array of miniaturized sensors will
be developed taking advantage of various innovative
technical solutions such as: biopolymerbased
gel-integrated sensors for direct speciation
of a number of trace metals; solid state
ion-selective membrane sensors coupled to an
on-line desalination module allowing reagentfree,
potentially calibration-free, detection of
nutrients; mid-infrared optical sensors for the
detection of harmful VOCs; optical devices
involving selective reversible immobilization of
target molecules to sense algae species and
toxins. These microsensors will be assembled
into miniature low power consumption probes
based on Eco-Design - ISO/IEC standards and
EnOcean technology. Data collection/transmission
will be handled with a dedicated webbased
front-end system compatible with EU
standard requirements. |
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