The Jefferson Project is a partnership between Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, IBM, and The FUND for Lake George. The partnership brings together researchers from diverse fields to develop powerful new tools to understand how human activities are impacting lake ecosystems. Advanced sensor networks combine the Internet of Things technology, novel analytical tools, and science to create a new model for environmental monitoring and prediction. The project is building a computational platform that captures and analyzes data from a network of sensors that track water quality parameters and the movement of nutrients in Lake George. These sensor data are combined with food web surveys, traditional chemical monitoring, and experimental data to create a thorough understanding of the factors that drive the lake’s food web and overall water quality. A thirty-seven year study of the chemistry and phytoplankton in Lake George by scientists at RPI, with support from The FUND for Lake George, demonstrated that the lake has changed in response to human activities. Chloride concentrations in the lake have tripled, phytoplankton have increased 33%, and the abundance of invasive species have increased.
Results/Conclusions
The critical question is: how do those changes relate to the past, present and future of Lake George? By creating a high-resolution view of the lake’s ecosystem, the Jefferson Project provides the knowledge that enables informed decisions to protect the Queen of American Lakes. To better understand Lake George, researchers are collecting massive amounts of data within the watershed. A network of sensors on land, in streams, and in the lake measure diverse variables related to weather, water runoff, water circulation, and water quality. Individual sensors communicate with one another and IBM and Rensselaer researchers, helping to make decisions about what parameters to sample, where to sample, and how often to sample. The incoming data are wirelessly communicated in real-time to multiple computers at IBM and Rensselaer. These data fuel a series of interacting models developed by IBM researchers that precisely predict weather events, landscape-level run-off, inputs of pollutants into the lake, water and nutrient circulation, and food web dynamics.Scientific insights and technology created for the project will not only help manage and protect one of America’s most famous lakes, but will create a blueprint to preserve important lakes, rivers and other bodies of fresh water around the globe.