NASA tech inspires open data infrastructure for water monitoring -- GCN

"Technology for testing water purity on the International Space Station is being remade into a simple, low-cost mobile app for evaluating water safety here on Earth -- particularly in places where waterborne disease is the second leading cause of death for children under the age of five.   mWater is a free system for monitoring water sources that leverages mobile technology and open data to simplify the work of water quality testing and allow people to easily find the safest water sources near them.  It combines three technologies to create an integrated approach to managing water and sanitation: a global map of water sources backed by an open, scalable and secure database; a cross-platform mobile phone app for recording water sources and reporting test results; and reliable, low-cost water testing kits, according to Clayton Grassick, co-founder and chief technology officer of mWater. mWater’s mobile app uses the onboard cameras on mobile phones to automatically detect colonies of coliform and E. coli bacteria that are grown on test plates from water samples. The water quality data that is collected is instantly analyzed and shared with local communities through a mapped database of water sources. mWater’s software lets local authorites map and update sites, with smartphone data synced to mWater’s cloud-based servers. It also features  a portal for creating and editing surveys, deploying the surveys to users or groups and visualizing survey results in real-time, including viewing charts and map and approving or rejecting data and survey responses. The suite of tools – mWater Surveyor, mWater Mapper and mWater Pathfinder – are accessible via smartphone. They use GPS and cloud-based computing to create an integrated approach to managing water and sanitation that’s accessible to third-world communities ... The inspiration for mWater’s technology came from water testing technology developed by NASA for astronauts. Because of weight and space constraints, the International Space Station recycles its water. Water needs to be safe to drink, so NASA developed an accurate coliform bacteria test (think E. coli) that could be performed in a restricted environment without special equipment. John Feighery, who at the time was an environmental engineer at Johnson Space Center charged with overseeing air- and water-monitoring hardware and currently is the co-founder and chief scientist of mWater, realized that the easier test developed by NASA could have other applications ... "