Collaborative Innovation: Low-Cost Water Sensor Developed by William & Mary and Malagasy Students Supports Community-Driven Conservation in Madagascar

December 9, 2024

Williamsburg, VA and Anosivola, Madagascar— Successful conservation often relies more on creativity, passion, and innovative thinking than on substantial financial resources. This was the guiding principle of a student team designing a low-cost water sensor to support community-led conservation. Their efforts over the last two years have culminated in the successful development of a water sensor that will aid Conservation International’s restoration initiative to protect the watershed of Lake Alaotra, the biggest lake in the country.

Community-led restoration plays a crucial role in enhancing conservation outcomes, yet monitoring the impact of these efforts is often hindered by the high cost and inaccessibility of water monitoring tools. A collaboration among William & Mary 's Institute for Integrative Conservation (IIC), Moore Center for Science, Conservation International Madagascar (CI), and the community of Anosivola, Madagascar, aims to create an affordable water monitoring tool that supports global community-led restoration and conservation efforts.

The project aligns with CI’s Priceless Planet Coalition (PPC) initiative, launched with Mastercard and the World Resources Institute in 2020, which seeks to restore twelve million trees in five years across Madagascar with funding support from the Coalition's partners, thereby improving water quality for agriculture and biodiversity around Lake Alaotra. The goal is to provide communities with an accessible tool to monitor the effects of their forest restoration efforts on water quality, which is important for biodiversity conservation, rice production, and human health. The student team is poised to meet this goal, having designed a turbidity sensor that can be made from materials found in Madagascar, costs less than $50 USD, and is designed for community-led monitoring at a landscape scale.

Sensor development requires diverse expertise

As part of the IIC’s year-long Conservation Research Program, the students?(Sophia Holincheck ‘24, Fiona Gordon '25, Leo Eichers ‘25, Jacob Timko ‘24, and Malagasy graduate student and CI staff member Michael Hervien FENOMANARIVO ) applied lessons learned from chemistry, hydrology, conservation, and engineering classes to design a user-friendly sensor capable of collecting quality water data at a low cost using readily available materials. The sensor measures the turbidity of the water, or the amount of particles in the water as a proxy for water quality, by shining infrared light through the water and measuring the amount of scattering.

The sensor was designed and tested in collaboration with local communities in Anosivola, Madagascar, and Williamsburg, Virginia to ensure that it would collect useable data and could easily be deployed and maintained by community restoration experts.

With mentorship from an interdisciplinary team, including Professors Nathanael Kidwell and Jonathan Frey, P.E. from William & Mary, Dr. Maíra Ometto Bezerra , and Dr. Kashif Shaad from the Moore Center for Science, Jeannicq Randrianarisoa , Rindra Raveloarison, and Leonard Akwany Jr . from Conservation International, the students had the necessary support to tackle this global challenge.

“It was a pleasant surprise to learn that the university was interested in testing the water sensor in CI’s community restoration sites,” said Jeannicq Randrianarisoa, the Lead of the PPC Project and a student mentor. “The regeneration of springs and erosion control is among the most significant benefits expected by the beneficiaries from our restoration project, along with land securing.”

Facing innovation challenges

Piloting the sensor posed significant challenges that required collaboration among students and community members, who pooled their unique skills and expertise to create a device from locally sourced items. The students tested the sensor in both Madagascar and Williamsburg, Virginia, repurposing plastic water bottles as sensor tubes, using plastic bags for waterproofing, a bird feather vane as a propeller tube, kitchen sponges to add water resistance and an abundance of rubber bands. With local knowledge and community support, they successfully collected data on water turbidity in areas undergoing restoration. “The biggest challenge was getting the sensor to function within such a framework, but it was very rewarding when we finally did succeed” stated W&M student Jacob Timko, who worked on the project in 2024. “It has certainly taught me a lot about what is required when working with such an interdisciplinary team, continued Timko, and “I realize how much I like research in a team-based environment.”

To foster new ideas and share lessons learned, the students conducted two training sessions with local community members on developing and utilizing the water sensor. These sessions sparked productive discussions about the sensor's various applications and innovations for improvement. They also supported CI’s goals related to community engagement and support throughout all stages of the restoration project.

“There was excitement and strong interest in the turbidity sensor from training participants; they were eager to incorporate it into their regular work in water, sanitation, forest, and fisheries, as water turbidity is critical to these sectors,” shared Leonard Akwany, Freshwater Lead in CI’s Africa Field Division.

In 2024, students improved the initial sensor prototype by enhancing its cost-effectiveness and durability for community monitoring. Instead of purchasing a waterproof box in the U.S., they waterproofed plastic food containers sourced in Madagascar, reducing costs by $20 USD. Additionally, they explored strategies to improve battery efficiency and decrease the sensor's size. Through testing in Williamsburg waterways, they successfully enhanced the quality of turbidity data collected while lowering the sensor's cost for use in Madagascar.

“The water sensor project was the most intercultural team I've had the opportunity to work with”, stated Leo Eichers a 2024 student researcher on the project, who detailed that “Trying to build a new piece of technology with groups from Virginia to Madagascar to Singapore was not free of challenges, but it could not have happened without the unique perspectives [the diverse team] made available”.?

In 2025, the student team will continue collaborating with the PPC team and the Anosivola communities to integrate the low-cost sensor into their water monitoring efforts. This will involve supporting community training, mapping waterways near restoration sites for long-term monitoring, collecting and analyzing turbidity data, and working with communities to interpret and utilize this data to inform their forest restoration activities.

"I learned a lot about the different perspectives community members have on conservation and how the PPC project benefits communities in Madagascar,” said W&M student Fiona Gordon ‘25. “I believe the water sensor will engage communities in the monitoring process of the PPC program, and I think it will be beneficial in many other ways. While we were there, community members generated numerous ideas for how this sensor could serve them, and they were eager to learn how to use it in various contexts."

Learn more

William & Mary student, Virginia Dare Johnson ‘25 wrote and produced a video of the water sensor project story. This short video documents the work that this interdisciplinary team is doing to advance community-led conservation in Madagascar.