Research Sponsor: FIU Institute of Environment

Project Lead: Biayna Bogosian

As urban flooding due to global warming and sea-level rise in coastal cities like Miami is becoming more frequent, finding methods for engaging and informing the affected citizens is critical. Water Wand is a crowdsourced hydrometry effort composed of a mobile application and a portable sensing device that allows citizens to collect and share water quality and depth data with the stakeholders and engaged community.

The lightweight and user-friendly Water Wand sensing device measure water depth, turbidity, salinity/conductivity, water temperature, dissolved oxygen, as well as the GPS of the collection zone. The Water Wand app communicates the importance of water quality monitoring research to the engaged community and allows citizen scientists to navigate the device easily. Water Wand is in its final production phase. The aim is to make the technology open source so that it can not only be used during the FIU Institute of the Environment’s community events but can also impact anyone interested in joining the monitoring efforts.