Design of a Shipborne Water Quality Monitoring System (SWQMS)

The Shipborne Water Quality Monitoring System presented in this paper consists of an automated water quality laboratory supported by integrated control and data processing, and data display facilities assembled in a 65-foot work boat. Data acquisition is provided by automatic in situ sensor packages and by analytical laboratory automatic and semiautomatic analysers. These data flow to the control and data processing group for data reduction, correlation, analysis, and formatting for recording, display, or plotting. This group also exercises computer control over the total SWQMS on the basis of initial programming, sensed data values, and preprogrammed control criteria. APDP-11/305 Digital Computer of the mini-computer class and associated peripheral equipment (including operator consoles) are used to integrate the data acquisition and processing. The 65-foot work boat laboratory is capable of measuring automatically 7 atmospheric parameters, 6 physical surface and subsurface parameters, 16 primary chemical/radiological parameters, plus specialized groups of chemical/biological parameters. The Shipborne Water Quality Monitoring System is capable of performing its mission in areas such as estuaries, rivers, and ocean waters.