Restoring Floodplain Forests - IUPUIProject Overview
The Lilly ARBOR Project is a floodplain forest restoration experiment along the White River in downtown Indianapolis, Indiana, which has produced effective methods to restore river margins and improve water quality in central Indiana.
Over the past five years, environmental research scientists from the Indiana University - Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) Center for Earth and Environmental Science (CEES) have worked with community partners, university students, and K-12 students and teachers to transform the Lilly ARBOR Project site from mown turf grass into a thriving wildflower, shrub, and sapling forest that is teeming with life.
With an emphasis on community-based research, the ARBOR project has been a test bed for the utilization of new sensor technologies for monitoring environmental systems remotely.
System Description
The ARBOR restoration site includes one bridge mounted and four well deployed YSI multi-parameter sondes along a one-mile stretch of the White River and the Western edge of the IUPUI Campus.
The system utilizes NexSens radio transmission technology for hourly data retrieval and uploads to a WQData server hosted within CEES. The ARBOR site is part of an extensive wetland, riverine, and lake site network developed by CEES for the exploration of advanced monitoring technologies to improve our ability to understand water quality and water resource management while learning about complex ecosystems.
The network includes 28 field-deployed sondes, seven with real-time transmission capabilities, and two weather stations throughout central Indiana. | NexSens 1001 | iChart 6 software, licensed per computer | NexSens WQData-6 | Annual web datacenter & hosting package for up to 6 field sites | NexSens 4100-BASE | Spread spectrum radio base station | NexSens A41 | Omni antenna, radio frequency, 890-970 MHz | NexSens A31 | RF cable, low-loss, 10' | NexSens 4100-iSIC | iSIC data logger with spread spectrum radio telemetry | NexSens A55 | Pole/wall mounting kit | NexSens A22 | 20-watt solar power kit for iSIC data loggers, 15' cable | NexSens A44 | High gain antenna, radio frequency, 3 dBi | NexSens A35 | RF cable, micro-loss, 2' | YSI 6600-00 | 6600 V2-2 Sonde with temperature/conductivity sensor | YSI 6561 | pH sensor | YSI 6562 | Dissolved oxygen sensor, polarographic, rapid-pulse | YSI 6136 | Turbidity sensor with self-cleaning wiper | YSI 6092 | Field cable, 50 ft. |
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