Sensor Testing and Calibration Facility for Reliable Real-Time Water Quality Monitoring

Accelerated urbanization and industrialization have intensified the discharge of pollutants into water bodies, raising concerns over water quality deterioration. Although sensor-based real-time water quality measurements (RT-WQM) provide an affordable and scalable alternative to conventional analytical approaches, their wider deployment is often restricted by concerns about their calibration, precision, and dependability. However, to certify and validate their operational effectiveness, deploying sensors demand periodic testing and calibration under field conditions. To tackle this challenge, the River Rejuvenation Division at CWPRS, Pune, India, has established a one-ofa-kind sensor testing and calibration (STC) facility, ideated and developed indigenously to test and calibrate water quality sensors under field and controlled environmental conditions. The engineered system is equipped with humidity (40–70%) and temperature (5–45 °C) control systems with robotic arms, facilitating the simulation of field-representative environmental conditions. The facility integrates with robotic arms to hold a moving water quality monitor to continuously test and calibrate key water quality parameters, such as temperature, electrical conductivity (EC), pH, turbidity, and dissolved oxygen (DO). This facility delivers a dependable platform to assess sensors' working performance, sensitivity, accuracy, and reliability before field application. The developed STC facility represents a crucial advancement in enhancing the sensor-based WQM infrastructure and certifying the deployment of reliable WQM technologies for sustainable management of water resources.