Drones are Making Safe Water More Accessible

Safe water is critical for public health and wellbeing in the UK. It is essential for drinking, cooking, and personal hygiene, and plays a significant role in preventing waterborne diseases. Water is central in all our lives and plays a critical role in everything we need for our survival like agriculture, industry, and the economy.

The UK has strict regulations and standards for water quality, which are monitored and enforced by the government and water companies to ensure the safety of public water supplies. For most of the UK, clean water is enjoyed without a second thought. However, this is not the case for everyone over the globe.

How can we make this process easier and cheaper to ensure that we are assured that these standards are consistently met?

Meet Nixie

Since 2014, the New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has worked with Reign Maker, a New York drone company, to efficiently monitor reservoirs and wastewater facilities.

Following concern over the logistical complexities of maintaining these standards, the CEO, Jessica Chosid issued a challenge to her team of aerospace and mechanical engineers to devise a water sampling technology that would streamline the process of sample collection by drones and make it simple to manage water data.

The Nixie was birthed- a revolutionary drone-enabled water sampling and sensor data tracking system that slices water sample collection time by 75%.

Regular water sampling is more important now than ever. Frequent samples are needed to effectively monitor inevitable triggers like population growth and climate change. Water quality experts can then better understand how water bodies change in response to pollution and how to protect them.

Water Sampling Techniques

“While many think a water quality analysis begins in the laboratory, it truly starts during the collection of the sample,” explains Chosid. “Sample collection is critically important because the majority of errors during water quality analysis occur at this stage.”?

Water sampling is labour-intensive, often dependent on boats, complex, and time-consuming. Samples must be collected correctly which makes them prone to human error. For example, the top surface water is not entirely characteristic of the full body of water which can lead to discrepancies.

How does it work?

Using the dipping method, Nixie can be connected to a DJI M600 or an M300 RTK drone to collect water samples from depths of up to 2 feet, allowing it to meet federal EPA guidelines that require sample collection from the entire body of water, and not just the surface. After collection, the sample bottle can be retrieved while the drone hovers and it can be replaced and repeated.

“The New York City DEP collects about 30 samples a day, using boats, captains, and a sampling crew of three. Nixie can grab 120 samples in the same 7-hour shift.”

?Not only faster and more consistent, Nixie uses the drone's GPS to log time and location coordinates so samples may be recorded more accurately and dipped into the same spot as before to show exact water quality changes.

“And let’s not forget that drone water sampling with Nixie can be mobilised immediately after a critical water event, even in areas where it may not be safe for human investigators to venture out physically,” states Chosid.

Currently under development, the Nixie Advanced system, will use sensors to test over 20 water parameters without requiring physical sample collection. The collected data will be automatically uploaded to an analytics dashboard, with the goal of creating the world's first in-situ water database.

If that’s not impressive enough already, Chosid explains in terms of cost.

“New York City collects 14,000 water quality samples a year. On average, it costs NYC over $100 per sample. With Nixie drone water sampling, the cost can be as low as $10 per dip.”

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Looking into the future, this technology will be invaluable. With higher demands for clean water and therefore a bigger push for more frequent water testing, this is the cheapest and most effective solution.

This is such an exciting development, and we are looking forward to seeing more positive applications of drone technology like this.

Read about how Thames Water is using drones for inspections:

Read the full case study here: