May 11 2010
During 2007, the Taihu Lake in China had witnessed a large growth of blue-green algae. To control this problem, China and the Wuxi government undertook a number of measures by installing a warning device, upgrading the industries with minimum environmental impact, including new biotechnology industrial applications and enacting new energy and environmental protection standards.
According to the Director of the Taihu Lake Pollution Prevention Office, Gu Gang, the intensity of the algae growth will not reduce in view of scanty rainfall and extreme temperatures present in the Taihu Basin in China.
Wuxi Wireless Sensor Networks Research Institute’s Technical Director, Tan Zhenhua, informed that based on the high probability of algae growth, the institute will coordinate with appropriate divisions to combat this problem. He further informed that using the current prediction methods to gauge the algae outbreak is not feasible, and hence they need to upgrade the warning device and collect more amounts of data to make accurate calculations. A number of radio telemetry devices will also be installed.
Tan attributes the algae outbreak to a number of factors. Among them, eutrophication played a major role. Other environmental factors such as temperature, oxygen content, water flow, pollution discharge and wind speed further compounded the problem.
Wuxi Wireless Sensor Networks Research Institute informed that the sensor network technology can be used to clean the lake. Since 2008, the institute has been using this technology to survey the Taihu Lake. Environmental data can be obtained by using advanced technology. For instance, advanced net data transmissions can enable scientists to predict future outbreaks of algae in just three days.
Source: http://en.wuxi.gov.cn