SGER: SMART Integrated System for Water Health Monitoring and Decontamination: Addressing Aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and Alike Situations

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The objective of this proposal is design and development of a micro-nanoIntegrated SMART water health monitoring and decontamination system-on-a-package(SOP). This objective will be met through the following specific goals ofthis proposal: (a) to understand and address the challenges in measurement offlood water parameters, in particular Coliforms, continuously and rapidlythroughout large volumes and over large time spans, using micro-sensor systemintegrated with wireless communication system; (b) another key objective is toembed specially engineered decontaminating surface activated nanoparticlesreservoir coupled in a feedback-loop with the micro-sensor to release theparticles once a high Coliform count is detected in the contaminated floodregions in the instances such as after Hurricane Katrina.Intellectual merit of the project will have far reaching implications in the areas of(1) fundamental science required to enable the development of integratedsensing systems that would be capable of rapid response monitoring of the floodwater affected area, (2) design considerations of such fusion of nano-microdevices and materials and their survivability in the harsh environment, and (3)testing of nanoparticles with sample contaminant, representative of what wasobserved in the Katrina aftermath.Broader Impact of the project would facilitate the fundamental understandingand optimization of the science and technology of continuous water qualitymonitoring as well as active environment specific remediation in case ofcatastrophic events.