Proof of concept: Temperature-sensing waders for environmental sciences

Proof of concept: Temperature-sensing waders for environmental sciences

Hut, R.W.
Tyler, S.
Van Emmerik, T.H.M.

Civil Engineering and Geosciences

Water Management

2016-02-29

A prototype temperature-sensing pair of waders is introduced and tested. The water temperature at the streambed is interesting both for scientists studying the hyporheic zone and for, e.g., fishers spotting good fishing locations. A temperature sensor incorporated into waders worn by members of the public can give scientists an additional source of information on stream-water–groundwater interaction. A pair of waders was equipped with a thermistor and calibrated in the lab. Tests with both the waders and a reference thermometer in a deep polder ditch with a known localized groundwater contribution (i.e., boil) showed that the temperature-sensing waders are capable of identifying the boil location. However, the temperature-sensing waders showed a less pronounced response to changing water temperature compared to the reference thermometer, most likely due to the heat capacity of the person in the waders. This research showed that data from temperature-sensing waders worn by the public and shared with scientists can be used to decide where the most interesting places are to do more detailed and more expensive research.

citizen science
hydrology
hyporheic zone
fishermen
fieldwork
OA-Fund TU Delft

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:62d0561c-1519-40a0-ba9c-955daa5186c6

European Geoscience Union

2016-03-02

2193-0856

https://doi.org/10.5194/gi-5-45-2016

Geoscientific Instrumentation, Methods and Data Systems, 5 (1), 2016

Institutional Repository

journal article

© 2016 The Author(s)
This work is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License