“Significant” funding has been secured for research into improved monitoring of bathing water quality, Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council says.
The local authority is working with Dublin City University, Fingal County Council and partners from Tallinn University of Technology and Tartu University from Estonia on the research.
Frank Curran, Chief Executive, Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, said that “from an engineering point of view, bathing water quality is a particularly difficult challenge”.
“There are legal requirements around testing, the weather has a huge effect, and timely information is key to protecting public health,”he said.
“By combining the best microbial science with machine learning, data modelling and artificial intelligence we hope to improve detection, monitoring and communication with our public. I particularly look forward to following the progress of this very significant Smart City Project,”he said.
The “UrbanSplash” Smart City Challenge Project represents the culmination of an 18-month partnership, with the project application jointly developed by teams from Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council (Smart Dún Laoghaire), Fingal County Council (Smart Balbriggan), Dublin City University, Tallinn University of Technology, and Tartu University.
Cllr Jim O’Leary, Cathaoirleach, Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council said, that the hope with the project is “that we can improve the overall experience of the community of water users along our beautiful coastline”.
“We believe strongly that working in partnership with our neighbouring local authorities and with universities such as DCU we can make a difference, he said.
Over the course of the project various scientific approaches to improving bathing water quality detection, monitoring and communication will be trialled and validated in both Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown and Fingal.
The project is linked to the “FinEst Centre for Smart Cities”, which runs a "Smart City Challenge" competition to discover and implement innovative ideas that address complex urban challenges.
The winning pilot project will receive funding of €1.2 m over a 3-year period. The pilot project will be coordinated by the FinEst Centre.
Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, Fingal County Council and DCU are the lead Irish partners in the pilot project, and the solution developed “will be tested and validated here in Dublin as well as in Tartu, Estonia”, the local authority says.