Fraunhofer Institute of Optronics, System Technologies and Image Exploitation IOSB Watercourses and drinking water supplies face considerable challenges. In Germany, many Watercourses are polluted, while the quality of drinking water is increasingly at risk. Overfertilization in agriculture in particular leads to increased nitrate pollution in groundwater, which poses both ecological and health risks. Protecting these vital resources requires innovative approaches to monitoring and analyzing water quality.
The environment ministries of Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, and Thuringia are working together to develop water information systems to meet the requirements of the European Water Framework Directive and the Drinking Water Directive. They are using products from our WaterFrame® technology. The scope includes monitoring water quality, groundwater and surface water analysis, and drinking water information.
Another problem being researched is the contamination of groundwater with nitrate caused by agricultural fertilizers. To counteract this problem, the NiMo 4.0 project aims to improve nitrate prediction in groundwater using artificial intelligence (AI). AI-supported systems are designed to provide more accurate predictions and recommendations for optimizing the measurement network.