The current deployment of wireless networks is largely limited to fixed-buoy systems focused on water quantity and physical characteristics of oceans and watersheds.  Yet, public health officials are increasingly taking an interest in wireless sensing technology to improve modeling and forecasting of public health and ecological risks, as well as for real-time monitoring of existing exposure.

The challenge presented to a wireless network design with application to microbial contamination is to align microbial action criteria with sensor characteristics (surrogate measurements vs. diagnostic analysis) as constrained by the economics of network deployment within the physical boundaries and a priori knowledge of the natural system.

There is a strong rationale for choosing the Great Lakes in general, and the lake Huron-Lake Erie corridor as a test bed. 

1. 1. First, they are representative of the challenges facing the management of large water bodies in the United States and elsewhere in the world. 
   

2. 2.Second, the lakes are a critical freshwater resource for the United States and Canada, impacting national economic sectors such as agriculture, power generation, steel production, shipping, drinking water and bottling industries, tourism, and natural resources management.  Also, given the potential impacts of climate change on water resources in more arid areas of the western (and now Southeastern) U.S., there will be a growing pressure to divert Great Lakes water to those areas, thus creating a significant management issue. 
   

3. 3.Third, we can leverage existing programs and partnerships in collecting data and planning research activities.  These partnerships include: (i) Lake St. Clair/St. Clair River real-time monitoring system; (ii) The Great Lakes Observing system; (iii) the Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory; and LimnoTech (for modeling applications).
   

Our work in this area is at the white paper stage and conceptual design level to bring together partners under the Environmental Observing System (EOS) umbrella:

1. 1.Adriaens, P., S. Skerlos, E.A. Edwards, P. Goovaerts, and T. Egli. 2003.  Intelligent Infrastructure for Sustainable Potable Water Supplies: A Roundtable for Emerging Transnational Research and Technology Development Needs.  Biotechnol. Adv. 22, 119-134.
   

2. 2.Adriaens, P, et al. 2008.  Cyberinfrastructure for Risk Forecasting and Communication: Application to the Great Lakes Observatory System, White Paper Adriaens 031408.pdf, Graham Environmental Sustainability Institute, University of Michigan.
   

3. 3. Adriaens, P., S. Batterman, J. Blum, K.F. and W. J. Weber, Jr.. 2002. Great Lakes Sediments: Contamination, Toxicity and Beneficial Re-Use.  Great Lakes Sediments.pdf, White paper commissioned by Michigan Sea Grant and the School for Natural Resources and the Environment (SNRE).