The Beczak Environmental Education Center is located on the Hudson River in Yonkers, N.Y., just minutes from New York City. Beczak’s mission is to educate people about the ecology, culture, and history of the Hudson River by providing interactive educational experiences focused on the river. Beczak does this to help citizens become better stewards of the Hudson. Beczak provides 350 programs reaching more than 5,400 people annually at their waterfront interpretive center.
To expand the environmental learning experience offered by the center, Beczak Exhibit Curator and Educator Jennifer Mokos contacted NexSens Technology to design a system to monitor Hudson River water quality and weather. The system allows Beczak to connect more people with the Hudson River. The data will be integrated into a new exhibit at the center, allowing visitors to view and understand conditions in the dynamic Hudson River estuary; it will also be incorporated into new marsh educational programs that are under development. The data is also freely available on WQData, NexSens’ web datacenter.
Connecting with the Hudson River
NexSens engineers configured a data logging and radio telemetry river monitoring system to continuously assess Hudson River water quality and level, as well as local weather conditions. The station is equipped with a Vaisala WXT-series multi-parameter weather transmitter and a YSI water quality sonde with level sensor. A NexSens data logger with radio telemetry transmits data from the river site to the center at 30-minute intervals. Data posts to the WQDataLIVE website, where anyone interested in the Hudson River can view both historic and real-time data.
The NexSens system enables the Beczak Center to continuously monitor the river and easily share this information over the Web. The real-time data provided by the system will be used extensively in educational programs for those of all ages.
Customer Testimonial
“Working with the NexSens team has been great. They took the time to answer all of our questions and helped build a system that exactly met our needs and budget. The entire process, from initial specs to installation, was a pleasurable, positive experience. They have continued to offer amazing support and assistance even after the system was installed. Overall, they have made a seemingly complex system quite simple to install and operate. I would not consider working with anyone else.”
— Jennifer Mokos, Beczak Exhibit Curator
The NexSens X2 Environmental Data Logger offers the latest in real-time monitoring technology with wireless communication, large plug-and-play sensor library, and ultra-low power consumption.
The YSI EXO represents the next generation of water quality instruments from YSI. The EXO1 sonde includes four sensor ports with internal data logging and battery power.
The Vaisala WXT536 Multi-Parameter Weather Sensor simultaneously measures air temperature, humidity, pressure, rainfall and wind in a compact platform with optional heating.
WQData LIVE is a web-based project management service that allows users 24/7 instant access to data collected from remote telemetry systems.