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Trial Use of Unmanned Surface Vessel (USV) System for Water Quality Monitoring and Sampling at Impou

Raw water from the impounding reservoirs is one of the major sources for drinking water supplies. Maintaining an ecological balance of the water bodies is essential for ensuring good water quality in impounding reservoir. For this reason, apart from regular water sampling from 17 impounding reservoirs for monitoring raw water quality, WSD also has dedicated crew and vessels to carry out regular limnological and biological surveys at major impounding reservoirs. To enhance the monitoring of raw water quality and emergency responsiveness, WSD is exploring the deployment of unmanned surface vessel (USV) to conduct urgent water sampling and water quality monitoring in case of pollution occurs in reservoirs which are not accessible by the conventional vessels.

The USV system mainly comprises of an electric unmanned surface vessel, a water sampling unit, a water quality monitoring unit and a base station computer. The USV has a built-in Global Positioning System and an automatic water quality monitoring system. The USV will perform water sampling and real-time water quality monitoring according to a preset route. The built-in obstacle avoidance functions can navigate the USV around obstacles encountered on water surface and ensure that the monitoring mission can be completed smoothly. The system would automatically generate graphical water quality distribution map for water quality analysis after completion of monitoring mission. Apart from urgent water quality monitoring and sampling, the USV system could also be used in routine water quality monitoring in impounding reservoirs to improve working efficiency.