Singapore deployed the last of eight specially outfitted buoys dotted around the coastline on Friday in a new $4 million ocean-monitoring network called Project Neptune.

Each buoy acts as its own chemistry lab, testing coastal waters for pollutants and sending continuous real-time updates wirelessly to give the National Environment Agency. This gives the NEA early warning of oil and chemical spills.

The data will help NEA to predict the impact of future developments on water quality.

The NEA may also use some of the data in public applications like the MyENV mobile app in the form of water pollution alerts, it said.