Drone versus Manual Water Quality Assessment : A Comparative Study in Rural and Urban Retention Basins

Water is an indispensable natural resource essential for the existence of all living organisms, and it acts as the basic building block of all ecosystem services and human activities. Nevertheless, the surface water quality has been impaired by urbanization, climate change, and intensive agricultural practices. We compare traditional water quality monitoring with drone-based water quality analysis. For this study, we considered two retention basins in Sweden (Halmstad region), one in an urban environment and the other in a rural area, and selected six sampling points in each basin and analyzed nitrate, nitrite, conductivity, temperature, pH, TOC, TN, and phosphate. When comparing manual and drone sensor readings, conductivity and temperature were higher in manual measurement, whereas nitrate had a higher reading in drone sensor measurement; however, pH was comparatively similar in all types of readings. While comparing the two sampling methods, nitrate and TOC show significant differences; thus, nitrite, phosphate, and TN show no significant differences. Through this study, we investigated how those hydrological conditions affect water quality. If drone technology becomes more advanced in the future, it should be an alternative technique to conventional water quality analysis.