3.3 Future Trends and Recommendations
A lot of attention is given to biosensors for detecting water pollutants; still finding
an appropriate biorecognition element for a particular pollutant remains a challenge;
which in turn limits the scope of biosensors. When whole-cell based biosensors are
used, production of secondary metabolites results into anomalous readings of target
organic pollutant in water; and hence in such cases a precise correction method is
required. For development of efficient and commercial applicable biosensors, it is
imperative to design a sensor which can simultaneously detect several pollutants
and can detect low concentrations of specific pollutant. One of the main aspects to
be considered for biosensors is stability of the bioreceptor through shipment,
storage and application condition. To overcome the limitations, research is to be
progressed in the area of producing recombinant target specific bioreceptor and
integrating biosensors with nanomaterials to improve the detection limit and sensitivity of biosensors.
4 Wireless Sensor Networks
Evolution of water quality monitoring systems have taken place from manual
lab-based to manual in-situ monitoring to modern Wireless Sensor Network
(WSN) based approaches. The traditional approach was collecting the samples
manually and transporting to laboratories for analysis of contaminants. But, this
approach required trained personnels, special instruments and equipments, is time
consuming, costly and does not provide real time monitoring to judge a change in
water quality. To overcome the problems mentioned above in-situ sensors were
developed for real time monitoring of water quality in field. This approach
developed hand held devices which can monitor water quality and store the data,
but was unable to send the data automatically to users for processing further.
WSN is gaining attention of researchers and end users for monitoring the water
quality. The gaining popularity is owing to as mentioned reasons; on-site fixing of
sensor to collect real time data, adjustment of sampling frequency to user’s wish
without investment of any additional money and time, anytime visualization and
processing of data by end users, configuration and control of sensor unit using a
remote [61]. A basic architecture of WSN constitutes of isolated sensor nodes for
sensing, processing of signal, embedded computing, and connectivity [62], which
enables the communication between persons/computers and the surrounding environment via wireless link [63]. WSN working steps include acquisition of data,
transmission of data, storage of data and redistribution of data. The transmission of
data of such water quality monitoring systems is usually built on cellular network
(GSM/GPRS) [64, 65] or satellite data link [66]. New network protocols such as
WAVENIS, Z-WAVE, LoWPAN, INSTEON, NB-IoT, ZigBee, LoRaWAN, etc.
have been developed [61]. Data can be stored in local server or cloud and thereafter
284
R. Soni et al.
A lot of attention is given to biosensors for detecting water pollutants; still finding
an appropriate biorecognition element for a particular pollutant remains a challenge;
which in turn limits the scope of biosensors. When whole-cell based biosensors are
used, production of secondary metabolites results into anomalous readings of target
organic pollutant in water; and hence in such cases a precise correction method is
required. For development of efficient and commercial applicable biosensors, it is
imperative to design a sensor which can simultaneously detect several pollutants
and can detect low concentrations of specific pollutant. One of the main aspects to
be considered for biosensors is stability of the bioreceptor through shipment,
storage and application condition. To overcome the limitations, research is to be
progressed in the area of producing recombinant target specific bioreceptor and
integrating biosensors with nanomaterials to improve the detection limit and sensitivity of biosensors.
4 Wireless Sensor Networks
Evolution of water quality monitoring systems have taken place from manual
lab-based to manual in-situ monitoring to modern Wireless Sensor Network
(WSN) based approaches. The traditional approach was collecting the samples
manually and transporting to laboratories for analysis of contaminants. But, this
approach required trained personnels, special instruments and equipments, is time
consuming, costly and does not provide real time monitoring to judge a change in
water quality. To overcome the problems mentioned above in-situ sensors were
developed for real time monitoring of water quality in field. This approach
developed hand held devices which can monitor water quality and store the data,
but was unable to send the data automatically to users for processing further.
WSN is gaining attention of researchers and end users for monitoring the water
quality. The gaining popularity is owing to as mentioned reasons; on-site fixing of
sensor to collect real time data, adjustment of sampling frequency to user’s wish
without investment of any additional money and time, anytime visualization and
processing of data by end users, configuration and control of sensor unit using a
remote [61]. A basic architecture of WSN constitutes of isolated sensor nodes for
sensing, processing of signal, embedded computing, and connectivity [62], which
enables the communication between persons/computers and the surrounding environment via wireless link [63]. WSN working steps include acquisition of data,
transmission of data, storage of data and redistribution of data. The transmission of
data of such water quality monitoring systems is usually built on cellular network
(GSM/GPRS) [64, 65] or satellite data link [66]. New network protocols such as
WAVENIS, Z-WAVE, LoWPAN, INSTEON, NB-IoT, ZigBee, LoRaWAN, etc.
have been developed [61]. Data can be stored in local server or cloud and thereafter
284
R. Soni et al.