Playground  /  Low-Cost Groundwater Detection

Project Details

For Science Hack Day 2014, our team created a low-cost groundwater detection is necessary to measure groundwater usage on a wide scale.

The following is from the presentation given at Science Hack Day.

Things that you need

• wires
• electrodes
• power source
• voltmeter

To Measure Resistivity

Math!

Space electrodes evenly

Inject current in OUTER pair

Measure voltage across INNER pair

Depth:

z = a / 2

Resistivity:

ρ = 2 π a V/I

ρ low = WATER!
ρ high = DRY!

As distance a increases, the depth of signal increases

Recap

• Low-cost groundwater detection is necessary to measure groundwater usage on a wide scale!
• The Arduino was chosen to use for data logging purposes

Collaborators

• Mika McKinnon
• Alice Pevyhouse
• Anita Hart
• Jeremy Wong
• with extra help from Christoph, Matthew, Brian, Chris and others