Real-time water monitoring data soon available for municipalities

FORMOSA, Ont. – Imagine the benefits if municipal staff were able to monitor spring flooding as it happened. New technology through Saugeen Valley Conservation Authority has made this reality.

At the July 17 meeting, Saugeen Valley Conservation Authority’s board of directors got a live demonstration of a new piece of technology that will give municipalities and others access to real time water data being collected. It has tremendous potential in such situations as floods.

Jody Duncan, water resources flood forecasting and warning co-ordinator, announced to the board that the Collaborative Water Data Viewer application has been ready for a couple of months, and the official launch is “imminent.”

He began his presentation by giving an overview of the history of the project. As stated in the agenda, “Saugeen Valley Conservation Authority (SVCA) collects real-time data on water conditions through an extensive hydrometric network. To retrieve and maintain data, SVCA uses database software called Water Information System by Kisters (WISKI) which is shared with 10 other conservation authorities.” The partnership is hosted by Upper Thames Conservation Authority and is known as the Western Ontario Data Hub.

Duncan explained, “Upper Thames got funding for the WISKI database through the Western Ontario Data Hub … and offered the opportunity to all members.”

He noted SVCA has been looking at doing something like this, and “Upper Thames dropped it in our laps.”

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Until recently, SVCA had no effective way of sharing data with municipal staff and the public. Then Upper Thames launched the Collaborative Water Data Viewer (CWDV). It’s an interactive, open-data portal that allows access to real-time environmental monitoring data. As stated in the report to the board, “Data from SVCA’s hydrometric network, such as water level, air temperature and precipitation, can now be viewed by the public and municipal partners, at no cost.”

Duncan said the plan is to bring CWDV to the public’s attention through the media. SVCA will be offering training sessions to municipal staff, probably later this year.

As he demonstrated, it’s not difficult to access the data, which can be used to generate graphs and tables. “It’s really like a mapping application,” he said.

Right now, it’s only being used by Upper Thames, Maitland Valley and Saugeen Conservation.

He showed how it’s easy to use filters to show only monitoring stations for SVCA, or show certain items such as rainfall, snow or stream flow.

It’s also possible to show past data, although Duncan cautioned against using that feature for Walkerton, since data has been collected there since 1914. “That’s too much data,” he said.

Future opportunities would include making water quality data collected through provincial monitoring networks available on the CWDV.

“I’m quite excited about it,” he concluded.

Several of the board members, including Barbara Dobreen (Southgate) and Kevin Eccles (West Grey) shared his enthusiasm, viewing data from specific monitoring stations with interest.

So did SVCA general manager Erik Downing. “It’s really exciting for me to see this … the progress is great to see.”