New York's Lake George to become the 'Smartest Lake in the World' [VIDEO]

Environmental sensors, gauges, Doppler units and self-propelled underwater robots are just some of the features to be added to New York's Lake George in a bid to make it the "smartest lake in the world."

Forty sensing platforms will be deployed around Lake George to monitor its shores all the way to its darkest depths in an unprecedented bid of concentrated eco-technology that experts hope will enable conservationists to keep the lake pristine for generations to come.

It's said that Lake George is at a tipping point that could lead to deteriorating water quality if invasive species and the effects of agricultural runoff are not better understood.

Stream runoff, rainfall, wind, salinity, currents and chemical levels are among 25 environmental variables to be analyzed by sensors placed around the lake this year, and the data will be amalgamated to provide a three-dimensional picture of the lake, according to a report by Weather Underground. The sensors will keep track of virtually everything that goes on at Lake George.

"It's an ideal laboratory to do smarter planet research," said IBM senior vice president John Kelly. IBM has a stake in the Lake George project and will design the supercomputers needed to crunch the huge amounts of data the wired-up lake will generate. Kelly said IBM is eager to be part of a partnership that will seek to do "very advanced research on the ecosystem in and around Lake George."

Sandra Nierwicki-Bauer, director of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute's Darrin Fresh Water Institute, said the project will provide a global model to study and sustain ecosystem protection.

"Because in some ways Lake George is small - it's 32 miles long - we have the ability to do a very complete and thorough instrumentation," said Nierzwicki-Bauer, according to Weather Underground.

It is anticipated that the Lake George project will lead to similar projects at other, larger lake systems. Great Lakes researchers are reportedly keeping close watch on the progress of the Lake George project

Guy Meadows, director of Michigan Tech's Great Lakes Research Center, told Weather Underground that it would be a "wonderful new addition" to his own research if a similar system were implemented in the Great Lakes, although the sheer enormity of the Great Lake system the finances needed to implement a similar system makes the prospect unfeasible at the moment.