The Maps
Here you will find interactive GIS Maps created from the Living Lab experiments as well as from datasets taken from Rijkswaterstaat. Feel free to play around and discover how bubble curtains improve water quality and how water quality is in the region of Amsterdam year-round.
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During the LL, and ASV (Automated Surface Vehicle) mapped the water around Westerdok to discover oxygen levels in water.
As seen on the map at the top, water usually flows from West to East. In the interactive map at the bottom you can see the differences in dissolved oxygen in water. Impressive!
There is a clear (imaginary) diagonal line that divides low oxygen in water and high oxygen in water. That's where the Bubble Barrier is!
It becomes apparent that the Bubble Barrier increases (and almost doubles) the amount of dissolved oxygen in water. That was better than expected! At the same time, dissolved oxygen upstream (left on the map) was lower than expected. around 5 mg/l means stressful conditions for fish! Read more about this here.
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Other parameters where also measured, such as temperature [ºC], Conductivity [ms/cm] and oxygen saturation [%]. Water conductivity is a way to measure the ability of water to pass an electrical current. Because dissolved salts and other inorganic chemicals conduct electrical current, conductivity increases as salinity increases. (Environmental Protection Agency, 2021) .
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Oxygen saturation [%] indicates the relation between the maximum amount of dissolved oxygen that water can hold vs the current amount of dissolved oxygen. Amongst other things, the amount of oxygen that a body of water can hold depends on temperature and salinity. The higher these values are, the lower the capacity of water to hold oxygen. The map is interactive. Hover over it or select any measurement point to display more data.
Do you want to learn more about bubbles, water quality and water aeration? Click here.
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But, how's oxygen in the rest of the canals? See for yourself!
Of course this information is a snapshot at a specific time when the samples were collected or measurements were performed.
Take a look at other variables, such as phosphorus, pH or temperature of the water in the analysis. Hover over the map or click on any point to display more info. Remember you can zoom in and out!
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We soon found out Oxygen impacts the water in many ways! For example pH (acidity level), NH3 and NH4 (Ammonia and Ammonium) hold a strict relation towards oxygen as can be seen on the map.
By now you know that the amount of oxygen that water can hold highly depends on water temperature. (Or so we say) but is it true? Look at the graph below from real data. Every dot is a water sample. See how there is indeed a trend? Of course, don't forget more variables come into play!
What about pH? Oxygen in water reduces acidity, hence increases pH. Take a look at this real-life data!
We mentioned water changes along the year. Why does that happen? Several ecological cycles occur at different stages in the year. Rainy season and organic materials being dragged into the water also change water quality. But lack of rain and high temperatures do as well! Take a look at the following graphs and see how different parameters in the water of Amsterdam fluctuate through the year.
You will see three different maps: 1) Phosphorus, Ammonium and Ammonia VS dissolved oxygen in water.
We divided the dataset into 4 parts:
- January-April
- May-July
- Augut-September
- October-December
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Note: Each map has tabs that you can click on to see the different values for different periods of time!
What do we need to know if we want to use bubble curtains? Is there a quick guide? Yes! Click on the button below to check out our Decalogue.