Mobile Water Quality Information Tool

Water quality remote sensing has grown to allow for operational monitoring of trophic status, assessment of cyanobacteria blooms, and historical and trend analysis of water quality. Now, with the exponential growth of mobile technologies new opportunities can remove barriers to operational products and interaction by using handheld devices. The innovation of this SBIR is the integration of operational Earth Observations, web-GIS technologies, and disparate point data using a seamlessly linked mobile platform. Several existing tools (government, commercial, and open source) have been developed in the past decade to generate and provide remotely sensed water quality information for improving the decision making process. However, there is currently an innovation gap in a 1.) comprehensive utility that pools together existing disparate data; 2.) georeferenced mobile platform that enables real time end-user interaction while at a site; and, 3.) lack of operational products for a diverse audience. The mobile application is scalable to any region, easily transferable, and will provide users with unique access to customizable geospatial information products over the web using a hand held device. The direct science outcome will improve water quality, improve water quality decision making processes, and improve access to water quality information that utilizes NASA science.