Design and development of a cost-effective buoy using 3D printing for coastal monitoring

An adequate knowledge of water (and air) environment parameters in ocean and coastal areas becomes of crucial importance for management practices. The behavior of oceans and coasts covers a large range of spatial and time scales that leads to the importance of high-frequency and widespread monitoring by using cost-effective platforms. This article proposes the design, development and deployment of a low-cost, small and compact buoy platform for coastal monitoring, which was built almost entirely on 3D printing technology in a modular way. The buoy called EMAC buoy -V3.0- (EMAC: Estación de Monitoreo Ambiental Costero) was significantly improved in the last few years based on cost-effective optimization and physical constraints inherent to coastal waters, providing the advantages of simplicity and flexibility. This study considered oceanographic and meteorological measurements of a buoy moored in the San Matías Gulf on the northern Patagonian Continental Shelf.