Real-time monitoring in Moldova

Under a new NATO funded Science for Peace programme project, Moldova, Ukraine,

Romania and Portugal have been working together to develop a real-time monitoring

and decision support system for the management of two central European rivers,

the Prut and Nistru.

The project builds on an earlier NATO-funded project involving Portugal to

develop methodologies for water resources development and management in Moldova.

This latest project, due for delivery this month, aims to fill information gaps

in water quality and quantity for mathematical modelling, civil service alert

systems for floods and pollution incidents and for more efficient river basin

management.

The NATO country project director is Professor Joaquim Pocas Martins, professor

of water resources and environmental management at the University of Porto.

Professor Martins was previously secretary of state for the environment for

Portugal and had worked closely with the NATO partner country project director,

professor Arcadie Capcelea who was then minister of the environment in Moldova.

Professor Capcelea was recently replaced as project director by Professor Gheorge

Dulca, the current minister of environment in Moldova. The NATO consultant to

the project is Dr Tim Lack of WRc who has extensive experience of working in

Moldova and eastern Europe.

In collaboration with the Ministries of the Environment for Moldova, Ukraine

and Romania, Professor Martins and Dr Lack drew up specification for the project

to install and commission two monitoring stations on the Prut and two on the

Nistru. Data derived from the system is transmitted to a central monitoring

and logging site in the capital Chisinau and relayed to the centres in the Ukraine

and Romania.

An invitation to tender was made to a selection of international companies

specialising in water quality monitoring and after a full financial and technical

assessment Phoenix Instrumentation was awarded the contract.

The project involved the design, build, delivery, installation and commissioning

of the stations which comprise the following elements:

• a drop-down environmen-tally controlled glass reinforced plastic (GRP) building,
• a six-parameter monitoring system with sampler,
• the sample acquisition system,
• logging and re-transmission system.

Each station incorporates automatic cleaning of sensors and sample lines with

compressed air and biocide. Although initially configured to measure only six

parameters (dissolved oxygen, pH, conductivity, turbidity, temperature and river

level) the stations have been designed to accommodate additional parameters,

such as ammonia and organic pollution, at a later date.

Acknowledging the long-term nature of this project, NATO has committed additional

resources for local training and a spares and support programme that will give

high levels of valid data.

As Moldova is landlocked the systems are being transported by road in a flat

pack form and Phoenix engineers will be on hand to supervise delivery and commence

the installation and commissioning. The objective is to complete the whole programme

in the first week of November 2001 before the adverse winter conditions set

in.