Determination of the optimum sampling frequency for water quality monitoring schemes

Water quality monitoring is essential to understanding the complex dynamics of water ecosystems, the impact of human infrastructure on them and to ensure the safe use of water resources for drinking, recreation and transport. High frequency in-situ monitoring systems are being increasingly employed in water quality monitoring schemes due to their much finer temporal measurement scales possible and reduced cost associated with manual sampling, manpower and time needed to process results compared to traditional grab-sampling.

Modelling water quality data at higher frequency reduces uncertainty and allows for the capture of transient events, although due to potential constraints of data storage, inducement of noise, and power conservation it is worthwhile not using an excessively high sampling frequency.

This study explores the issue of frequency optimisation of water quality monitoring schemes by applying three different statistical approaches for determining the optimum sampling frequency.

The proposed approaches are tested utilising a high frequency dataset built from recording continuous physical and chemical water quality parameters (temperature, dissolved oxygen (DO), fluorescent dissolved organic matter (fDOM), turbidity and conductivity) with multiparameter sondes at 3 sites in Bristol’s Floating Harbour.

As a result, this analysis provides practical tools to understand how different sampling frequencies are representative of the water quality changes. Furthermore, it helps determine the minimum frequency required to communicate periodic fluctuations in water quality and investigate the additional benefit of recording data at a frequency higher than the minimum required.