#	Pagina
attuale pagina	/open-h2020/projects/207040/results.html

Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - HiFreq (Smart high-frequency environmental sensor networks for quantifying nonlinear hydrological process dynamics across spatial scales)

Teaser

Summary

The HiFreq project entitled â€˜Smart high-frequency environmental sensor networks for quantifying nonlinear hydrological process dynamics across spatial scalesâ€™ is a Marie Sklodowska Curie Research and Innovation Staff Exchange (RISE) project funded by the European Union under the Horizon 2020 framework programme for research and innovation from December 2016 to November 2020.

Regulators and industries are challenged by the difficulty to analyse and predict the impact of nonlinear environmental processes on short-term and long-term responses of ecosystems to environmental change. Until very recently, the development of conventional monitoring, forecasting and prediction tools has been based on the assumption of stationary environmental systems. In the context of global change, these tools are increasingly pushed towards and even beyond their design limits. This project follows the rationale that only novel, high-frequency/high-resolution monitoring and predictive modelling will yield new process understanding of ecosystem functioning. Technological progress offers as many opportunities as it triggers challenges: what are needed now are new strategies to generate, manage and analyse BIG DATA at unprecedented spatial and temporal resolution. Innovation can only stand as a synonym for â€˜significant positive changesâ€™ if [a] we manage to clearly state the challenges (global change & non-stationarity) and problems (generating and managing high-frequency information) and [b] transform them into solutions, i.e. the quantification and prediction of environmental responses to global change as a prerequisite for designing and implementing adaptation and/or mitigation strategies. The timely outcomes of this project will hence be of great relevance for the scientific community, regulators, and the private sector.

The key aim of HiFreq is to drive innovation in high-frequency environmental sensor network technologies and modelling, in particular, to quantify non-linear process dynamics in ecohydrological, biogeochemical and ecosystem monitoring.

Work performed

From December 2016 to November 2018 which is the period covered by this report, the project had created scientific progress through individual secondments between paired institutions as well as joined actions when secondees of different institutions collaborated in joint projects. Both mechanisms served to support and facilitate the supra-disciplinary aims and objectives of the project. The aims and objectives of the project are achieved by research, training and outreach through four scientific work packages (3-6).

The Work Package 3 facilitated the development, testing and (cross)validation of in-situ sensor technology for high-frequency and high-spatial resolution monitoring in aquatic and terrestrial environments. During the period covered by this report, the research team has initiated new concepts in the joint networking of multiple property sensors under dynamic flow conditions, and advanced capacities in monitoring the dynamic breakthrough of reactive fluorescence tracers under variable discharge and turbidity conditions. In the first joint experiment that was carried out at the Krycklan Experimental Catchment in Sweden in summer 2017, joint up approaches for the integrated application of fibre-optic sensor network technologies together with reactive metabolic activity tracers, and in-situ water quality sensors was pioneered for investigating complex ecosystem responses to variability in hydrodynamic forcings.

In Work Package 4, the project focused on developing novel approaches for integrating high-frequency sensor technology with the next generation of earth observation systems for providing a step change in large-scale distributed sensor network monitoring. The project has developed new mechanisms to apply fibre-optic distributed sensor network technologies for monitoring of heat and water fluxes in the subsurface, and created automated calibration and validation scripts for the optimised analysis of fluorescence tracer breakthrough curves. We have also tested a range of catchment water contaminants and demonstrated satisfactory performance of the sensor in the laboratory to ppm levels, analysed data on fine sediment transport and transport and fate of pollutants for the quantification of tipping points, and develop a framework for assessing effects of variability in water, energy, solute and sediment fluxes and ecosystem structure on environmental hot spots and hot moments.

The Work Package 5 provided innovative statistical approaches and modelling techniques for efficiently handling, processing and analysing complex sets of big data with variable frequency and resolution. The project has developed algorithms for synthesis of large interdisciplinary data sets and automated analysis of microbial metabolic activity tracers in situ, and simulated nutrient dynamics in rivers using high-frequency nutrient data to reassess prior nutrient models.

The Work Page 6 developed strategies for visualising and aiding decision making based on high-frequency environmental sensor network monitoring and adaptive modelling approaches to better guide real-time responses to multiple environmental stressors. In the first reporting period, we applied the concept of interacting multiscale spatial and time-variable domains to the river corridor, and identified inconsistencies in measurement methods which obfuscate our understanding of river corridor exchange. We then determined four necessary advances to achieve predictive understanding of river corridor exchange: standardization of metadata, critical evaluation of the information content and support volumes for measurement techniques, multiscale model-data integration, and advancing theoretical models of river corridor exchange.

Final results

The improved technological solutions and mechanistic understanding of ecohydrological dynamics derived in this project will benefit the private sector (water companies, environmental consultancies) and public sector (regulators, decision makers) throughout Europe. Knowledge generated by HiFreq will be directly relevant to EU legislation, and the inter-sectoral consortium will create synergies between science and practice. Relevant areas of activities, directly connected to HiFreq include the Water Framework Directive where innovative approaches to achieve a good chemical and ecological standard and strategies to evaluate success beyond the currently established indicators are required. A better understanding of the highly dynamic functioning of complex environmental systems will also be crucially important given potential increases in hydropower production and river regulation (cf. EU Sustainable Development Strategy, SDS). Through the innovative research concept of HiFreq, knowledge, tools and models will be generated to better assess the environmental effects of these pressures on river ecosystems, which will be vital in moving towards clean energy without compromising long-term ecological services.