Maintaining water quality, especially in urbanized landscapes, is highly challenging since water bodies are exposed to varying sources of pollutants from urban run-offs and industries. Simultaneously, active recreational use of these water bodies promotes urban livability in the cities that requires maintenance of clean water and aesthetically pleasing surroundings. Several methods and protocols in monitoring pollutants are already in place. However, the boundaries of extensive assessment for the water bodies are limited by labour intensive and resource exhaustive methods. To ensure good quality, large coverage and safety of the water bodies, NUS researchers have developed an innovative system for monitoring pollutants is required for better management and sustainability.

NUSwan - New Smart Water Assessment Network is an innovative concept on spatial-temporal water quality monitoring. Building upon aesthetics and recreation, NUSwan is a comprehensive solution to maximize use of resources and cost effectiveness. It is a simple yet powerful tool to observe the water environment. Its ability to collect data according to directed mission in real-time allow interactive sampling at any location of interest. It has the capability of performing simultaneous multi-node, high speed sensing for observing concentration gradients for better characterization and detection of time varying hotspots.