An Internet of Things Cyber-Infrastructure for the Study of Impacts to the Ecology of Lake George in the Jefferson Project

The Jefferson Project is a collaboration between Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, IBM, and the FUND for Lake George focused on developing a detailed understanding of the overall ecology of Lake George, including the interactions of the physical, chemical, and biological environment in and around the lake. Aspects of the research are driven principally by the management of numerous complex factors affecting the lake including: road salt, storm water runoff, and invasive species. The lake is located in the Adirondack State Park region of upstate New York, approximately 220 miles north of New York City. Lake George is a glacial, oligotrophic water body and is unique among fresh water lakes because of its ecology, geographic orientation, historical importance, and tourism-driven economic impact.

We are developing an integrated observing and modeling system to enable a comprehensive understanding of the current ecological state of the lake while simultaneously supporting an on-going research and monitoring program. This integrated IoT system is composed of three major components. The first of which is a cohesive, and adaptive, cyber-infrastructure responsible for the control, coordination, communication, aggregation, and delivery of the various data streams from a real-time multi-sensor observing network composed of in-situ sensors for atmospheric, stream and lake measurement. These data are used to inform and validate a coupled multi-model environmental modeling system. The cyber-infrastructure provides system-level control of power management, data collection rates and autonomous adaptation of sensing strategies in real time. The application of this integrated system enables predictive and real-time analytics for understanding the physical, biological and overall ecological impacts as part of a monitoring and assessment program that can be applied to inland and coastal water systems.