SAP, the Northern Beaches Council, and Curl Curl Lagoon Friends have teamed up to help improve the water quality and rehabilitation of Sydney’s Curl Curl Lagoon. By building a water craft strapped with cutting-edge technology from SAP Leonardo, we are providing valuable insights by monitoring the health and quality of the water using IoT sensors.
Overcoming Initial Challenges
The decline of the overall health of Curl Curl Lagoon began from the 1950s to the 1970s. This was a result of urban and industrial development in the area. The initial rehabilitation of Curl Curl Lagoon began in the early 1980s with the aim of preserving the natural environment and improving the water quality. Due to unresponsive technology, volunteers were unable to understand the health and quality of the lagoon due to limited data insight, incomprehensible or incomplete captured data, and infrequent monitoring.
Technology-enabled Environmental Management
To overcome challenges, SAP leveraged Cloud Platform IoT services and Analytics to continuously monitor and collect data on the water quality. Using a simple, yet functional design, a buoy named ‘Newton’ was built with items like PVC pipe, empty water bottles (for floatation), a carrier box, and a pin board. Newton, uses SAP Leonardo sensing technology and 3G connectivity to collect water quality data every 30 minutes. Previous to SAP’s contribution, the lagoon was monitored approximately every 2 weeks.
After the first week Newton 1.0 launched in September, it successfully measured data but was unfortunately flooded with water due to float-design flaws (:>). It was immediately replaced with Newton 2.0 and was enhanced with waterproof casing and an improved raft floatation design.
Newton 2.0 measures salinity, conductivity, pH, water temperature, and captures the data on the water quality over a period of time, as well as provides real-time information. This information is vital for the ongoing rehabilitation of the lagoon, the surrounding environment, and the biodiversity of wetland species. It helps volunteers to better manage the lagoon and to educate others on the environment.
Newton is named after both Alan Newton, the former principal of Curl Curl North Public School who contributed significantly to the rehabilitation of the lagoon and Isaac Newton, the great scientist.
Environmental Sustainability through SAP
Using data and emerging technologies glean important insights for environmental sustainability and management. It has the capability to determine the extent of human impact on the environment over time and to provide data-driven decisions for assessing the risk of environmental degradation or aid in mitigating and reducing impact on the environment.
Educating the local community and young people in managing the lagoon is an important initiative for Curl Curl Lagoon friends and the Northern Beaches Council. Aligned together with SAP’s environmental values, both partners demonstrated how Newton works to students in Kindergarten and Year 6 from Curl Curl North Public School who attended the official launch in September. Newton is an “educational resource, bringing real-world environmental science into the classroom and advising locals of current conditions” said members from Curl Curl Lagoon friends.
To find out more about the technology used, access our eBook with global success stories using SAP Leonardo.
This article was originally posted on Linkedin.
