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Development of Inexpensive and DIY Water Sensors to Advance Community-Led Nature-Based Conservation Solutions
Research Location:
Lake Aloatra, Madagascar and Williamsburg, Virginia
Conservation Partners:
Conservation International Madagascar and the Moore Center for Science
2025 Student Researchers
Mandy Joyce '26, Majors: Integrative Conservation and Environmental Science
Cy Strain-Seymour '26, Majors: Computer Science and Linguistics
Michaël Fenomanarivo, Université de Fianarantsoa (graduate) and CI ResearcherPast Student Researchers
Fiona Gordon '25, Major: Physics; CRP 2023
Sophia Holincheck '24, Majors: Chemistry and Computer Science; CRP 2023
Leo Eichers '25, Major: Chemistry; Minor: Geology; CRP 2024
Jacob Timko '24, Major: Biology; Minor: Biochemistry; CRP 2024
Faculty Mentors
Dr. Nathan Kidwell and Jonathan Frey (2023-2024)Project Description
A team of William & Mary and Malagasy students is working with Conservation International Madagascar, the Moore Center for Science, and faculty mentors to develop a low-cost, do-it-yourself water sensor that will support community monitoring of watersheds in Madagascar.
To effectively protect nature from the cascading impacts of climate change, local communities need support in designing, implementing, and evaluating potential solutions. Nature-based solutions (NBS) leverage sustainable planning, environmental management, and engineering practices to protect or restore natural ecosystem processes. These solutions are essential in promoting adaptation and resilience, especially in water management. However, for NBS to effectively support resilient water resources, local communities need efficient and accessible tools to monitor the impact of their conservation efforts.
Currently, monitoring community-led NBS is limited by the high costs and inaccessibility of scientific water monitoring tools. To overcome this challenge, there is a need for a low-cost, accessible water turbidity sensor that local communities can develop, maintain, and use to track the effects of NBS in protecting water resources against climate change.
Conservation International (CI)'s Priceless Planet Coalition supports Malagasy communities in restoring forest ecosystems to improve water quality and retention across the watershed, strengthen ecosystem services and enhance the local agriculture economy. Despite their success in advancing community-led forest restoration across the Lake Aloatra region of Madagascar, CI and local communities lack the necessary tools to monitor the impact of these landscape-scale restoration efforts on water ecosystems.
To address this gap, William & Mary and Malagasy students are collaborating with CI Madagascar staff, the Moore Center for Science, faculty from the W&M Chemistry Department and MakerSpace, and local communities around Lake Aloatra to develop a low-cost, accessible turbidity sensor that can be used to monitor restoration impacts.
In 2026, a team of students will be working alongside partners in Madagascar to improve the efficacy of the low-cost water sense and to improve elements of the sensor (e.g. battery life) to ensure its utility in rural Madagascar. The students will also work with the local communities in Madagascar and CI's field teams to deploy, collect and visualize data collected from the sensors to monitor restoration effectiveness. To complement the work in Madagascar, students will deploy the sensors across Williamsburg to support the improvement and implementation strategy for community-led water monitoring.