S06 - Session P5 - Smart Aquaponics: a smart application based on a generalistic model to teach, mimic and monitor Aquaponic systems

Authors: Haissam Jijakli *, Pierre Raulier, Benoît Stalport

Aquaponics is the association of fish and plant farming, exploiting the natural phenomenon observed in aquatic ecosystems. The microbiota transforms the fish waste into different chemical forms that are less toxic for fish and very suited for hydroponic plants culture. However, the lack of advanced education dedicated to aquaponics and the absence of tools specifically dedicated to conceive and monitoring of aquaponic system are major drawbacks for the development of these eco-friendly systems. In that context, the Interreg project Smart Aquaponics is developing an online training program, a decision support tool and a monitoring tool. These 3 tools will be accessible within an application (smartphone and PC). The project is carried out by 14 operators and is coordinated by the Research Center for Urban Farming of the University of Liege The three tools are based on a general model that predicts the evolution of different parameters (oxygen, nitrogen, plant and fish growth, …) of an aquaponics system. The specific nature of this model lies in its ability to model aquaponics systems of different sizes and designs. The equations of the model are based on aquaculture, hydroponics and aquaponics researches and are implemented using an object-oriented programming in order to generate a completely generic model. The European Smart Aquaponics Project provides numerous systems with different architectures. All these installations are equipped with a full set of aquaponics sensors to generate a strong aquaponic database that will be used for model development. The computed outputs are various and new ones are regularly added to keep pace with the continuous development of aquaponics. After development, the model has been applied to an experimental setup and the basic calculated parameters will be presented such as the dynamical behaviours of the water volumes and several nutrient concentrations, the vegetal and animal biomasses, the water consumption, a few economic criteria, etc. A demonstration of the Smart Application will be carried out in real time online during the conference.