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Updated: Feb 6, 2026

Continuous Hydrologic and Water Quality Monitoring of Vernal Ponds
Published on: November 13, 2017
Nanosensors for water quality monitoring
1Via Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the Institute for Critical Technology and Applied Science (ICTAS), Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA, USA. pvikes@vt.edu.
Abstract:
Nanomaterial-enabled sensors are being designed for high-efficiency, multiplex-functionality and high-flexibility sensing applications. Many existing nanosensors have the inherent capacity to achieve such goals; however, they require further development into consumer- and operator-friendly tools with the ability to detect analytes in previously inaccessible locations, as well as at a greater scale than heretofore possible. Here, I discuss how nanotechnology-enabled sensors have great, as yet unmet, promise to provide widespread and potentially low-cost monitoring of chemicals, microbes and other analytes in drinking water.
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