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About REON 

Tremendous human impact occurs in the regions where rivers and estuaries meet the ‘coastal margin’ – coastal wetlands, bays and shoreline. In the United States, this region is home to 70% of the population and 20 of its 25 largest cities. It is also where most industry and ports are found.

On August 16, 2007, Beacon Institute and IBM announced a partnership to create the River and Estuary Observatory Network (REON), the first technology-based monitoring and forecasting network for rivers and estuaries. This joint effort between Beacon Institute, IBM and Clarkson University will allow for minute-to-minute monitoring of physical, chemical and biological data from New York's Hudson and St. Lawrence Rivers via an integrated network of sensors, robotics and computational technology distributed throughout both rivers.

Beacon Institute deployed B1 -- the first sensor array for the REON system -- in the Hudson River off Denning's Point on August 20, 2008.  The sensor array was redesigned in 2009 and redeployed. It is moored with a four point tension mooring system that includes four 300 lb mushroom anchors. The shackles and chains of mooring adjust tension on the platform based on water and wind conditions, much like the way shock absorbers smooth the ride of an automobile.

PV panels provide solar power to batteries on deck, which power everything on the sensor platform including the wireless communications.  The computer-controlled autonomous robotic profiler enables an array of multiple sensors to move up and down in the water for measurements (see below for description of sensors). 

An on-board computer receives information from the instruments and serves as a data logger, and relays commands to profilers.  Remote programming allows for autonomous and cyber control of the sensor array.

Sensor platform development is being led by James S. Bonner, Ph.D., P.E., a nationally recognized expert in real-time water monitoring technologies. Bonner is Beacon Institute’s Chief Research and Education Officer and a Shipley Fellow at Clarkson University. He holds an M.S. in civil engineering and a Ph.D. in civil and environmental engineering from Clarkson University, as well as a B.A. in biology from SUNY Plattsburgh. In the early 1990s, he spearheaded an effort with colleagues from Texas A&M University to pursue a long-term research project to improve understanding of modern oil spill remediation and countermeasure technologies.

Bonner also established the Shoreline Environmental Research Facility in Corpus Christi, TX, where he developed and implemented technologies that use high-frequency radar to map surface water along the Texas coastline. He has developed new technologies that provide real-time continuous monitoring with in-situ sensing ("sensing in place") to measure important water parameters. With funding from the National Science Foundation, he has undertaken a national effort to create a cyber infrastructure, enabling collection and circulation of real-time data and data analysis in the study of oxygen depletion in water.