A Comparative Assessment of Floating and Submerged Sensor Network Deployments for Monitoring Underwater Sediment Transport Processes

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) are a pioneering technology in many environmental monitoring applications owing to their ability to be deployed for long periods of time in locations that cannot be reached manually. One such use-case is the monitoring of underwater sediment transport, a process that plays a significant role in coastal erosion. Previous examples of WSNs deployed for this purpose have been in the form of underwater sensor networks (UWSNs), which have a number of shortcomings from both a practical and technical viewpoint. As such, this paper provides a comparative assessment of UWSNs and an alternative deployment approach of floating echo- sounding sensor networks for the purpose of monitoring underwater sediment transport.