In Germany, water quality is analysed mainly in the context of technical water treatment plants or when controlling waste waters. Using the current technologies, however, it is difficult to observe surface waters independent of professional infrastructure and without mobile sample collection.
Especially in regions with poor accessibility to test laboratories or in disaster areas, decentralised on-site analytics could enable water quality screening, e.g. for the drinking water supply. Additionally, lab-independent analytical technologies allow bodies of water to be monitored easily and continuously, e.g. to assess the degree of pollution, blue algae infestation or the growth of other pathogenic microorganisms.
With the help of the miniaturised sensor platform for mobile water analytics that the “MoWaP” project is developing, the qualities of bodies of water is supposed to be assessed and changes continually traced independently from professional laboratory infrastructure.