Agricity

01/04/2021 - 27/06/2023

Synopsis

The objective of this project is to create a platform that (i) using ion-selective electrodes (crystalline membrane electrodes), currently available on the market, that detect and monitor over time the presence of heavy metal contaminants, namely copper, (ii) collect information from a network of these sensors, dispersed in urban agricultural land; (iii) and communicate the data obtained in real time to a central platform; (iv) centrally analyze the collected data and make them available to interested parties – farmers, city council or civil protection officials. As these sensors are immersed in a solution (the water that will be used for irrigation) whose concentration levels can be influenced by dimensions such as rainfall, temperature or air humidity, it is also the objective of this project to implement an additional set of sensors that detects and monitors these parameters. This network of additional sensors, although foreseen to contextualize the sensing of copper in water, will not be a network of minor importance since, given its capillarity and geographic distribution, it could be used as a monitoring network with high resolution that allows those who manage urban spaces to monitor relevant parameters to identify vulnerabilities in a context of climate change, for example extreme meteorological episodes, for example temperatures or “flashfloods”.

Funding

Funding Program: PT2020 - POCI - Programa Operacional de Competitividade e Internacionalização
Funding Total Budget: 955.552,32€
Funding IPLeiria: 229.854,10€
Funding CIIC: 157.219,60€