International Journal of Software and Computer Science Engineering

Volume 4 Issue 2

Water Monitoring System Based on Internet of Things

P. Akhila*, Dr. R. Senthil Prabha**

Student*, Assistant Professor**
Department of Information Technology
PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India
Corresponding author’s email id: 1akhilasasidharan5@gmail.com,rsenthilprabha@gmail.com
DOI: http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3262132

Abstract
Water is always an important part of daily life. Water management and
conservation is vital to human survival due to the global environmental
situation. There have been huge needs of consumer-based humanitarian
projects in recent times that could be rapidly developed using the technology
of Internet of Things (IoT). In the proposed methodology a water monitoring
system based on IoT that measures the level of water in real time. The
prototype is based on the idea that water level, especially in disaster-prone
areas, can be very important parameter when it comes to flood occurrences.
To detect the desired parameter, a water level sensor is used, and if the water
level reaches the parameter, the signal is fed to the cloud in real time. A cloud
server has been configured as a repository for data. The water level
measurement is shown in the remote dashboard.

Keywords: Water Monitoring System, Internet of things, Cloud Server,

Sensors, Computation.

INTRODUCTION executes some kind of exchange of

Developments in computing and consumer
electronics technologies have recently
triggered the paradigm of the Internet of
Things (IoT). The Internet of Things is
described as an enabler that connects
seamless objects the environment and
messages between them. The Internet of
Things (IoT) is a collection of objects that
work together in a federated manner to
serve consumer tasks [1][2]. It binds
computational power to deliver
environmental data [3][4]. These devices

11 Page 11-19 © MANTECH PUBLICATIONS 2019. All Rights Reserved

 International Journal of Software and Computer Science Engineering
Volume 4 Issue 2

can be microchips in the form of tailor- system that enables internal water quality
made sensors, devices, embedded systems, monitoring. The factors that affect the
and data analysis. The main components of water quality are toxic metals, dissolved
an IoT system are shown in figure 1 oxygen, sedimentation, erosion etc. Alerts
below. and relevant data are transmitted to a cloud
server over the Internet and can be
One of IoT's rapid influences is received by a consumer-owned user
environmental monitoring, particularly on terminal. The water measurement results
disaster management, early warning are displayed in a remote dashboard based
systems, and environmental data analytics. on the web. Homeowners can use this
Water monitoring and sustainability are system as efficiently as industrial users
one of the major issues in an and other water utilities. The system can
environmental monitoring. Water provide a pervasive early warning system
monitoring and conservation from a through the Internet of Things for portable
consumer perspective is an important water quality. The paper outline is the
utility service that often faces many following. Section 2 explains the
challenges. In this paper we propose in Literature Survey, Section 3 discusses the
real-time scenario an IoT-based water prototype implementation and followed by
monitoring system. The solution proposed Section 4 on experimental results. Finally,
is low cost, with an integrated sensory the paper is concluded in Section 5.

Fig 1 Components of IoT

12 Page 11-19 © MANTECH PUBLICATIONS 2019. All Rights Reserved

 International Journal of Software and Computer Science Engineering
LITERATURE SURVEY
Manju.M, Hariharan.S, Karthick.V,
Sreekar.B [1] proposed a system which
continuously recycles the water, the
quality of water must be constantly
monitored at regular intervals. Manually
doing this task can be very tiring. Hence,
Internet of Things (IoT) can be used as an
effective application for this purpose.
These techniques are highly useful in
traditional farming. The system is
continuously monitoring the water quality
and the plant‟s environment by using
different sensors. The Lumisense IoT
Board is made use of for providing the IoT
application for the aquaponic system.
The proposed aquaponics system would
require only very minimal manual
intervention and yield great results with
the help of technology. Electrical
conductivity is another parameter which
can be helpful to determine the condition
of an aquaponic system. The ideal range of
Electrical Conductivity in the aquaponic
system is between 0.2 to 2.0.If it is lower,
and then it indicates that the system is
unbalanced. Lumisense IoT board featured
with SIM900 GPRS modem to activate
internet connection also equipped with a
controller to process all input UART data
to GPRS based online data.
13 Page 11-19 © MANTECH PUBLICATIONS 2019. All Rights Reserved
Volume 4 Issue 2
M. Carminati, V. Stefanelli, G. Ferrari,
M. Sampietro, A. Turolla, M.M.A.
Rossi, S. Malavasi, M. Antonelli, V.
Pifferi, L. Falciola [2] proposed a
prototype of the smart Pipe, a compact and
intelligent wireless node hosting
miniaturized sensors, embedded in a
flange, for distributed and real-time
monitoring of water contamination.
A single-chip impedance analyzer and
low-parasitic analog multiplexer
(ADG604) are used to sequentially
connect the four probes to the conductivity
measuring circuit. Due to its ease of use
for rapid prototyping and flexibility, the
Arduino UNO board was chosen to control
the system. Demonstrating self powering
of the unit by means of an energy
harvesting control valve, regulating the
flow in the water distribution network
where an efficient installation of the
sensors. a single illimetric microelectronic
CMOS chip to be installed in every
kitchen water tap, bringing disruptive
innovation in pervasive water monitoring
and life quality.
Vincenzo Di Lecce, Domenico
Petruzzelli, Domenico Soldo, Alessandro
Quarto [3] proposed framework of the
Adaptive Water Management policies
enforced by the current EU legislation. It
 International Journal of Software and Computer Science Engineering
introduces a new device, namely VPeN
(vapour phase e-nose), VPeN is a real time
water quality system for speditive water
monitoring and control. The main idea is
based on the potential use of cheap gas
sensors inserted into confined gas
expansion chamber to detect the presence
of volatile pollutants in the
vapour/gasphase (atmosphere) overlooking
the aqueous-phase.
MOS gas sensor and a specific calibration
procedure was introduced to minimize the
off calibration errors. Several commercial
analyzers are now available for monitoring
turbidity, suspended solids, nutrients,
ammonia, organic parameters such as
BOD5, COD and TOC; as well as
inorganic and physicochemical
parameters. This method provides large-
scale, online, reliable and cost-effective
data to be acquired, integrated and applied.
Ni-Bin Chang, Sanaz Imen [4] proposed
a remote sensing-based early warning
system for decision support is developed
and applied to improve the treatment
efficiencies in a drinking water treatment
plant. With the help of developed decision
support architecture, water treatment plant
operators will be able to create and access
a visual preview for the concentration of
two key water quality parameters (i.e.
14 Page 11-19 © MANTECH PUBLICATIONS 2019. All Rights Reserved
Volume 4 Issue 2
TOC and TSS) throughout the Lake for
specific dates using the historical or
updated database.
The Nevada Administrative Code (NAC)
for the Lake Mead suggested the water
quality standard of less than 25 mg.L-1 for
TSS beneficial use .DSS is able to provide
the water treatment plant operator with
timely information about the temporal
variation of TOC/TSS concentrations at
the specific location with forward-looking
perspective and it enables the water
treatment plant operators to tackle
unexpected events before they occur.
Yogesh K. Taru and Anil Karwankar
[5] proposed a system to develop,
implement, monitor and control some
parameter of water such as pH level,
temperature, turbidity. The availability of
potable water is an issue as it is
contaminated, there are basic qualitative
observations that quickly determine if
water is not safe to consume hence
detecting the pollutants is a important
phase.
The Arduino UNO use as Controller unit is
used to read the analog values from the
sensors and converted into the voltage
form then calibrates. The Arduino board
provide with ADC (Analog to Digital
 International Journal of Software and Computer Science Engineering
converter) with analog input slot. The
remote control panel manager show the
how many clients are connected to the
server and also ability to disconnect
specific client with help of the touch
button. The use of the remote panel tool is
very simple and powerful security because
of there are three option Allow Viewing
and controlling, allow Viewing, Deny
Access. The use of system is more
economical and reliable for water
monitoring.
Sona Pawara, Siddhi Nalam, Saurabh
Mirajkar, Shruti Gujar, Vaishali
Nagmoti [6] proposed a system to
automate the Monitoring process, water
quality monitoring sensors, arduino IDE
and RF module are placed in water
sources. The sensors gather data like pH,
temperature and turbidity which is
forwarded to arduino IDE for binary to
digital conversion. This data is transferred
by radio frequency transmitter module to
the lab. The sensors deployed in water
send data to sink, which further sends it to
arduino.
Thus data is send over the physical layer in
the form of bits. Once this data reaches
arduino, it forwards it to RF module. RF
module gives data in the form of bits at a
specified port of the computer which reads
15 Page 11-19 © MANTECH PUBLICATIONS 2019. All Rights Reserved
Volume 4 Issue 2
data from it, manipulates it according to
need and displays it to the user.
PROPOSED METHODOLOGY
The project proposes a scheme that is
practically efficient and flexible to support
the water monitoring system. Water
Surveillance System is a process of finding
its water purity. Industry 4.0 is a
technology which deals with internet of
things, cloud computing, cognitive
computing and cyber physical systems.
This project improves the water quality of
the recycled water.
The Arduino IDE is used to monitor water
temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen and
toxic metals such as manganese, iron lead
and calcium. In the serial monitor, the
observed values are initially displayed
later moving to the web page. In the
JElastic cloud environment, the same will
be uploaded. When the temperature rises,
the amount of oxygen and other gasses
will decrease in the water. The solubility
of such gasses will reduce. Due to some
metabolic changes, the water temperature
will rise. DS18B20 is used for water
temperature monitoring. Potential
hydrogen is used to measure water soluble
substance characteristics. Possible
hydrogen is commonly referred to as pH.
The pH scale varies between 0 and 14. For
 International Journal of Software and Computer Science Engineering
Volume 4 Issue 2

pure water, the pH value is 7 because it is
neutral. It becomes acidic if the values are
less than 7 and if the values greater than 7
are called alkaline solution. The normal
pH level of surfaces water ranges from 6.5
to 8.5. Because of the presence of battery
acid the acidic solution is not suitable for
plant growth. The pH range diagram
shown in Figure 2 below.
than 10 will leads to various health
problems. Heavy metals discovered in
your drinking water, can be very
detrimental to your health. Significant
impacts include decreased growth and
development, cancer, organ harm, harm to
the nervous system, and death in extreme
instances. Hence these metals need to be
monitored frequently to reduce its impact
over human health.

By applying IEEE802.11 communication

standards, the IoT-based water system is

Fig 2. pH Range Chart deployed using 2 different IoT sensors (i.e.

ultrasonic, water sensor). These sensors

The toxic metals like lead, calcium, data transmission is accomplished by

manganese and iron in the water are integrating a wireless gateway into the

hazardous to our health. The presence of consumer network. The system design of

manganese is noticeable by the color, odor the proposed method is shown below in

and taste. The manganese value greater figure 3.

Fig 3 System Design of the Proposed Methodology

16 Page 11-19 © MANTECH PUBLICATIONS 2019. All Rights Reserved

 International Journal of Software and Computer Science Engineering
Volume 4 Issue 2

EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS removing most of the emerging

The IoT-based water monitoring data is contaminants including other contaminants
analyzed to measure the accuracy and that are difficult to remove by other
response time of their performance metric. treatment methods.
The total response time required to
complete one sensor feed cycle is 126ms. REFERENCES
In this work, a total of 500 readings have I. Manju, M., Karthik, V., Hariharan,
been sampled. The range of values which S., & Sreekar, B. (2017, March).
are safe for drinking water is tabulated Real time monitoring of the
below in table 1. environmental parameters of an
aquaponic system based on Internet
Table 1 Range of values requires for of Things. In 2017 Third
ensuring the water purity International Conference on
Parameters Range of values Science Technology Engineering &
Temperature 15 – 35 degree Celsius Management (ICONSTEM) (pp.

pH 6.5 – 7.5 943-948). IEEE.

Iron 9 - 10 (mg/L)
II. Carminati, M., Stefanelli, V.,
Calcium 1 - 135 mg/L
Ferrari, G., Sampietro, M., Turolla,
Manganese 0.02 - 0.05 mg/l
A., Rossi, M. M. A., ... & Falciola,
L. (2017, July). Smart pipe: A
CONCLUSION miniaturized sensor platform for
The project proposed explained the Water real-time monitoring of drinking
Monitoring System details. This water quality. In 2017 IEEE
automation reduces manual effort and Workshop on Environmental,
increases water purity. The experimental Energy, and Structural Monitoring
results showed that the proposed method Systems (EESMS) (pp. 1-6). IEEE.
improves the purity of water. In the near
future, this project uses reverse osmosis III. Di Lecce, V., Petruzzelli, D.,
technique to remove toxic water metals. Soldo, D., & Quarto, A. (2016,
RO-treated or filtered water is pure, clean, June). Online wastewater
and healthy. RO treatment is currently the monitoring system using solid state
only technology which is capable of sensor. In 2016 IEEE Workshop on

17 Page 11-19 © MANTECH PUBLICATIONS 2019. All Rights Reserved

 International Journal of Software and Computer Science Engineering
Volume 4 Issue 2

Environmental, Energy, and engineering. Decision Support

Structural Monitoring Systems Systems, 42(4), pp.2029-2042.
(EESMS) (pp. 1-5). IEEE.
VIII. Haliza Abdul Rahman (2007)
IV. Chang, N. B., Imen, S., & Vannah, „Suatu Tinjauan Terhadap Isu
B. (2015). Remote sensing for Pencemaran Sungai Di Malaysia‟,
monitoring surface water quality Persidangan Geografi 2007 UPSI,
status and ecosystem state in pp 1-20.
relation to the nutrient cycle: a 40-
year perspective. Critical Reviews IX. Huang, Y.F., Ang, S.Y., Lee, K.M.
in Environmental Science and and Lee, T.S., 2015. Quality of
Technology, 45(2), 101-166. Water Resources in Malaysia. In
Research and Practices in Water
V. Taru, Y. K., & Karwankar, A. Quality. InTech.
(2017, July). Water monitoring
system using arduino with labview. X. Zainudin, Z., 2010. Benchmarking
In 2017 International Conference river water quality in Malaysia.
on Computing Methodologies and Jurutera, pp.12-15.
Communication (ICCMC) (pp.
416-419). IEEE. XI. Department Of Environment.
(2015) Official Portal of
VI. Pawara, S., Nalam, S., Mirajkar, S., Department of Environment.
Gujar, S., & Nagmoti, V. (2017, [online] Available
April). Remote monitoring of from:http://www.doe.gov.my/porta
waters quality from reservoirs. In lv1 /en/. [Accessed: September 24
2017 2nd International Conference 2015].
for Convergence in Technology
(I2CT) (pp. 503-506). IEEE. XII. Ruslan Hj. Muhammad, Amirul
Aripin (2006) „Issues and
VII. Xu, L., Li, Z., Li, S. and Tang, F., challenges in environmental
2007. A decision support system monitoring and enforcement in
for product design in concurrent Sabah‟, Fourth SabahSarawak

18 Page 11-19 © MANTECH PUBLICATIONS 2019. All Rights Reserved

 International Journal of Software and Computer Science Engineering
Volume 4 Issue 2

Environmental Convention, pp.1- Theory and Applications (USYS),

6. IEEE International Conference on
(pp. 177-182). IEEE.
XIII. Coetzee, Louis, and Johan Eksteen.
2011. “The Internet of Things – XVIII. Afroz, R., Hassan, M.N. and
Promise for the Future? An Ibrahim, N.A., 2003. Review of air
Introduction.” Conference pollution and health impacts in
Proceedings: 978–1 Malaysia. Environmental research,
92(2), pp.71-77.
XIV. Sheth, A., 2016. Internet of things
to smart iot through semantic,
cognitive, and perceptual Cite this Article As

computing. IEEE Intelligent P. Akhila, Dr. R. Senthil Prabha (2019)

Systems, 31(2), pp.108-112.
XV. Abdul Muiz bin Md. Azhari, 2011.
Water Monitoring System Based on
Internet of Things International Journal
of Software and Computer Science
Engineering, 4 (2), 11- 19

Air Quality Monitoring System. http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3262132

Degree Thesis, Universiti Tun
Hussein Onn Malaysia.

XVI. Jiang Peng (2009) „The Design of

Wetland Water Environmental
Monitoring System Using Digital
video Based on Wireless Sensor
Network‟, International Conference
on Communications and Mobile
Computing, pp 390-394.

XVII. Kafli, N., Othman, M.Z. and Isa,

K., 2016, December. Development
of a floating platform for
measuring air and water quality. In
Underwater System Technology:

19 Page 11-19 © MANTECH PUBLICATIONS 2019. All Rights Reserved