Application of Open Source Electronics for Measurements of Surface Water Properties in an Estuary: A Case Study of River Jadro, Croatia

There are multiple factors affecting the behavior of water properties in an estuary, including the hydraulic properties of rivers and corresponding receiving water bodies, along with the potential solutes brought by rivers. Although there are various numerical models and analytical approaches to solving particular or holistic problems in estuaries, measurements are inevitably required. In this study, we developed an innovative low-cost probe based on the Arduino platform as an alternative to more expensive measuring systems. Our device is designed to measure position, temperature, and electrical conductivity in multiple realizations, and it consists of a floating container equipped with the following components: an Arduino Mega development board, a power management module, an SD card logging module, a Bluetooth module, a temperature measuring module, a global positioning satellite (GPS) position module, and a newly developed module for measuring electrical conductivity (EC). We emphasize that all used tools are open-source and greatly supported by the worldwide community. We tested our probe during a field campaign conducted at the estuary of River Jadro near Split (Croatia). Nine probes were released at the river mouth and their position, temperature, and EC were monitored and recorded during the experiment, which ended when the probes stopped, due to the river plume attenuation. The same experiment was repeated three times. All of the probes recorded consistent temperature data, while the EC data show more variable behavior, due to the higher sensitivity of the corresponding sensor. This was expected as a part of the natural process in the estuary. The measured data were additionally used to parameterize an analytical model for mean flow velocity and salinity as a proxy concentration. This showed a good match between the experimental results and the theoretical framework. This work, although focused on water surface applications in the near field zone of an estuary, should be considered as a promising step toward the development of innovative and affordable measurement devices.