Why REON?
Visualizing the Smart River
Beneath the calm surface of the Hudson River lies an invisible, vibrant and dynamic world. From salt water to fresh, silt to sand, this diverse and fragile ecosystem is a critical source of fresh water, food, transportation, recreation and cultural beauty for the 12 million people who live within its watershed.
But do we know enough about this invisible world to protect it?
"Tremendous human impact occurs in the regions where rivers and estuaries meet the 'coastal margin' - coastal wetlands, bays and shoreline,” explains James S. Bonner, Ph.D., P.E., Beacon Institute's Chief Research and Education Officer and Clarkson University Shipley Fellow. "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."
Real-time monitoring and observation technologies, such as those used in our world's oceans, provide new ways of looking at ecosystems at multiple levels of resolution. Traditional water sampling typically involves filling a bottle with water from a defined location, then sending it to a lab for analysis, only to receive the results at a later point in time. This procedure is then repeated many times to achieve a data set. While better than no sampling at all, the downside to this method is that there can be important gaps in data between samples, as well as in danger in the length of time between the sample and the analysis results.
The River and Estuary Observatory Network (REON) is a joint effort between Beacon Institute, Clarkson University and IBM. REON is a first-of-its-kind real-time monitoring network for rivers and estuaries, and allows for continuous monitoring of physical, chemical and biological data from points in New York's Hudson, Mohawk and St. Lawrence Rivers via an integrated network of sensors, robotics, mobile monitoring and computational technology deployed in the rivers.
A networked array of sensors in the river provides the data necessary to locally observe spatial variations in such variables as temperature, pressure, salinity, turbidity (water "cloudiness"), dissolved oxygen and other basic water chemistry parameters. All of these sensors transmitting information in real time is resulting in massive amounts of data.
Enter IBM. REON is a test bed for IBM's "System S" stream computing system. This high-performance architecture rapidly analyzes data as it streams in from many sources.
Beacon Institute is developing new methods of monitoring and modeling the movement of suspended particles in the river. Fixed and floating sensor arrays plus mobile monitoring via research vessel are providing scientists with new information and insights into the dynamics of particle flow, among other critical ecosystem health indicators.
The first generation of REON data visualization is now available on our website. Future applications of REON data could include the ability to visualize the movement of chemical contaminants, protect fish species as they migrate, and provide a better scientific understanding of river and estuary ecosystems. REON will make information available to a variety of end-users - from researchers, to teachers and schoolchildren, to policy makers and the general public.
"This new way of observing, understanding and predicting how large river and estuary ecosystems work ultimately will allow us to translate that knowledge into better policy, management and education for the Hudson River and for rivers and estuaries worldwide," concludes John Cronin, Beacon Institute Fellow.
