Aquasight

Aquasight

Aquasight

Automating Real-Time Water Quality Monitoring

London, UK

GBR

Nonprofit

In the UK, especially along the Thames and its tributaries, authorities lack real-time, high-resolution data on water quality parameters and pollutants, limiting their ability to detect and respond to short-term pollution events such as Combined Sewer Overflows (CSOs), urban runoff, and agricultural discharge. Existing methods rely heavily on manual sampling conducted monthly or quarterly, which often misses sudden pollution spikes triggered by rainfall or local discharge. Furthermore, there are no affordable pollutant-monitoring buoys on the market, making water quality monitoring inaccessible to citizen scientists and environmental NGOs due to the high equipment costs of automating wet chemistry. This delay allows pollutants—such as phosphates, nitrates, and heavy metals—to spread unchecked, harming ecosystems and posing health risks to swimmers, rowers, and riverside communities. In 2022 alone, there were over 300,000 recorded sewage spills in the UK, contributing to eutrophication, biodiversity collapse, and reduced public trust in water governance. Globally, over 2 billion people rely on contaminated freshwater, and runoff pollution remains a leading cause of ecological decline. Our solution directly addresses this gap by enabling continuous, real-time monitoring of key pollutants, empowering stakeholders to detect pollution faster, respond earlier, and ultimately prevent long-term environmental and human harm.

To address the lack of affordable, real-time water pollution monitoring, AquaSight was developed: a remote water quality monitoring buoy that provides quantitative pollutant data in real time—without the need for lab testing or technicians. Unlike infrequent, point-based sampling that often misses short-term pollution spikes from agricultural runoff, urban discharge, or Combined Sewer Overflows (CSOs), AquaSight enables continuous, data-driven monitoring for faster detection and intervention. Through interviews with citizen scientists and iterative prototyping, we built a cost-effective, modular buoy system with interchangeable sensors (temperature, pH, TDS, dissolved oxygen) and a compact spectrometer. The system automates wet chemistry using microfluidics and colourimetric analysis, allowing real-time detection of phosphates, nitrates, ammonia, and heavy metals using minimal reagent volumes. Environmental agencies and citizen scientists can easily swap reagents to monitor specific pollutants, enabling a plug-and-play approach that makes pollutant monitoring more accessible. Data is transmitted to an open-source platform, providing continuous access to live trends, sudden spikes, and long-term patterns—empowering faster, community-driven responses and targeted mitigation.

AquaSight serves communities impacted by poor water quality, particularly citizen scientists, environmental NGOs, open-water swimmers, riverside residents, and small-scale farmers. Current partners include Thames21, an NGO monitoring Thames water quality, and Water Rangers, where we will share real-time data to increase transparency. These groups are currently underserved by existing water monitoring systems, which are expensive, infrequent, and difficult to access without technical expertise or institutional backing. Citizen scientists and local organisations lack the resources to conduct high-frequency, laboratory-grade testing, limiting their ability to track pollution or advocate for change. Swimmers and riverside communities face health risks from undetected contamination, while farmers struggle to monitor nutrient runoff affecting both their crops and nearby ecosystems. By providing real-time, automated pollutant monitoring at low cost, AquaSight empowers these users with reliable, continuous data on water quality. Citizen scientists can independently track changes in their local rivers. Environmental groups can access open-source data to support advocacy and transparency. Local councils and water agencies can identify and respond to pollution events faster and more effectively. Given its affordability, more buoys can be deployed across impacted areas, creating a comprehensive view of water quality shared through a centralized, open-source platform accessible to the entire community.