Around the clock
Every station continuously records pH, oxygen, temperature and turbidity – all year round, including outside the bathing season.
Project · Mecklenburg-Vorpommern
Mecklenburg Lake District
meer.zukunft.seen · 21 WAMO stations · two districts
20WAMO stations in area monitoring
2districts in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern
since 2024in continuous operation, beyond the bathing season
Starting point
The gap between two samples.
Bathing water quality has conventionally been assessed through manual sampling: every four to six weeks during the main season, and practically not at all during the cold months. Whatever happens between two visits stays invisible.
It is precisely in that gap that later problems build up – algal blooms, falling oxygen levels, a stratification about to turn over. A diagnosis that only emerges with the next sample comes too late for authorities and swimmers alike.
The WAMO stations reverse the relationship: the data are there continuously, and sampling remains in place as a reference.
The monitoring network
How the stations work.
Sensors from the market
The measurement technology comes from s::can and Badger Meter and has been integrated into the WAMO platform for years.
No connection on the shore
The platforms run on solar power and need neither a fixed electricity supply nor a data line on site.
Straight to the authorities
Readings are transmitted automatically to the responsible public health and environmental agencies, with no staff effort for each individual measurement.
Comparable across lakes
The same sensors and the same transmission in both districts produce measurement series that can be compared between water bodies.
Situational picture
From a single reading to a situational picture.
Twenty-one stations only create knowledge once their data come together in one place. Together with IKT-Ost AöR, e.Ray is working to consolidate the measurement series of both districts – through the SWIM portal, where sensor data and satellite-based analysis sit side by side.
For the authorities that means one point of access instead of twenty separate reports, and an overview that does not stop when the bathing season ends.
Timeline
From the first station to a network.
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08/2024
Augustus goes into the water
The project’s first station begins operating in Tollensesee in Neubrandenburg – alongside the public health office’s sampling, not in place of it.
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09/2024
Second station in Reitbahnsee
Also in Neubrandenburg. For the first time, two water bodies are covered by the same procedure side by side.
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2025
Expansion to 21 stations
The remaining platforms go into operation in further lakes of the Mecklenburgische Seenplatte and Vorpommern-Greifswald districts.
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ongoing
A shared situational picture
Together with the districts and IKT-Ost AöR, the SWIM portal is being developed so that both districts work from the same data.
Responsible body and funding
Who runs the project.
meer.zukunft.seen is delivered by IKT-Ost AöR in Neubrandenburg on behalf of the districts of Mecklenburgische Seenplatte and Vorpommern-Greifswald. The undertaking is one of the federally funded Smart Cities model projects, financed by the Federal Ministry for Housing, Urban Development and Building.
Alongside water monitoring, the programme covers e-learning and digital infrastructure. Within it, the WAMO stations are the ecological pillar – in a region with more than 2,000 lakes, extensive river courses and a connection to the Baltic Sea.
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Mecklenburgische Seenplatte district
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Vorpommern-Greifswald district
Why continuity matters
Treating a lake that has already turned over is too late. Seeing the trend leaves you options.
Media coverage
From the lake to television.
Vorpommern-Greifswald district · 14 May 2025
Digitale Umwelttechnik für Plöwen – WAMO im Kutzowsee gestartet! →
District press release on the next water-quality monitoring station, launched at the Kutzowsee in Plöwen.
Vorpommern-Greifswald district · 22 April 2025
Zweite digitale Gewässergüte-Messstation (WAMO) im Landkreis in Betrieb genommen →
Press release on the second WAMO station in the district, commissioned at the Zarrenthiner Kiessee.
NDR · 16 April 2025
Vorpommern-Greifswald kontrolliert Badestellen jetzt digital →
On the first floating monitoring station in the Kosenowsee near Gützkow: hourly data on more than ten parameters, six further stations announced for the district, seven already running in the neighbouring Mecklenburgische Seenplatte district.
ARD Nordmagazin · 17 April 2025
Badeseen: Überwachung der Wasserqualität mit neuer Sensorik →
NDR television report in the ARD media library.
Mecklenburgische Seenplatte district · 20 March 2025
Neue Anlage zum Wasser-Monitoring installiert →
Press release on the inauguration at the Großer Stadtsee in Penzlin on 19 March: hourly measurements directly in the lake instead of laboratory samples, transmitted to the specialist authorities over the mobile network.
Nordkurier · 31 March 2025
Klostersee in Dargun bekommt Frühwarnsystem →
Regional report on the early-warning system at the Klostersee in Dargun.
Further reading
More from the project.
Two Journal pieces accompany the undertaking: the report on the first station, and the wider context of why two districts are investing in digital water monitoring together.
