The Living Bridge Project: Measurements Of Estuarine Environmental Parameters

The Living Bridge Project [1] aims to be a self-sustaining experiment of environmental health parameters and renewable energy at the Tidal Turbine Deployment Platform [2] in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Water quality in this region of the Piscataqua River is of high importance as no consistent environmental data has been collected here. The platform is attached by vertical guide posts on the Portsmouth side of pier #2 of the Memorial Bridge and held afloat by pontoons. The tidal turbine within the moonpool of the platform produces clean carbon free energy to the overall system of instruments attached to the platform. A continuation of years of work provided by a wide group of individuals has put the Living Bridge Turbine Deployment Platform [2] in the position this school year, 2020-2021 to be able to obtain consistent and reliable environmental data. Our goal for this year's continuation of the Living Bridge Project [1] was to calibrate, deploy, and monitor the Valeport Midas CTD+ instrument [3] onto this platform to collect important health parameters in this region in the Piscataqua River. Along with monitoring the Valeport Midas CTD+, planning on performing maintenance for the overall well being of the platform by inspecting old mounts and fabricating new ones, cleaning the pontoons of excess biofouling, and helping run the tidal turbine was necessary.