Telling the Water Quality Story through Report Cards
wq session ppt 4-12-13
1. Water Quality Data in Connecticut
Preliminary Findings
***
Workshop Session
Bridgeport Aquaculture Center
April 5, 2013
2. Contents
I. CT Data Collaborative
II. Project Scope
III. Models
IV. State of Work in CT
V. Questions
3. Connecticut Data Collaborative
• a public-private partnership (and program of
the New Connecticut Foundation) working to
increase the quality and accessibility of up-to-
date, relevant data needed to inform effective
planning and policy.
~ Changing the Way Connecticut Uses Data ~
4. CT Data Coolaborative Initiatives
• CTData.org
– Houses wide range of data from federal, state, local
and private sources relating to health, well-being
and economy of Connecticut
• CT Nonprofit Strategy Platform
– Provides access to federal, state and nonprofit
agency trend data
– Designed in partnership with Urban Institute’s
National Center for Charitable Statistics and led by
UCONN Nonprofit Leadership Program
• Data Acquisition and Policy
5. CTData.org
Connecticut Data Collaborative: A Public-Private Partnership
• Data Development & Use
Knowledge Center(wiki)
• Metadata Database (in wiki)
• Data Common for access to
data
• Main Portal
• Customized Portals by
Sector / Geography
6. • Early Childhood Collaboratives
• Regional Action Councils for Prevention of
Substance Abuse
• DataHaven – New Haven Health Matters
Collaborative
• Future: Cross City Urban Data Collaboration
Driving Community Change
Equipping Community Collaboratives, Public Agencies,
& Non-profits with Data and Tools
EXAMPLES
7. • Building comprehensive local early
childhood services systems
– Partnership with Graustein Memorial Fund
(statewide foundation)
– Grounded in data-driven framework of
Results Based Accountability (RBA)
• Linking results we want to indicators to strategies
and community accountability for results
• Cross community learning community
• Addressing Data Challenges
– Very small numbers (e.g. very low birth weight)
• Informing legislative advocacy
– CT Legislature has embraced RBA
Early Childhood Collaboratives
55 communities
Juvenile Arrests
Nonadequate
Prenatal Care
8. • Building cross-sector connections: e.g., housing to
health to education to community
– data and conversations
• Importance of easy access to quality data & tools to
use them – sharing infrastructure cost
• Learning data use - access is not sufficient
– RBA training – provides common framework, language
– building a stronger community data voice, data capacity
• Building stronger connections to planning, policy and
action
Themes from ctdata.org work:
using indicators to drive change
9. Brief Demo: CT Data and Weave
Nitrogen Loading-New England
http://demo.oicweave.org/weave.html?file=NewEng
CTData.org
http://www.ctdata.org
10. CT Water Quality Portal
Assessment
• Data Sources
• Interviews
• Literature Search
• Conversation with DEEP
• Review of Models
• State of Work in CT
14. Interviews- Issues
• most likely data available but
–hard to tell who has what data
–to what extent it is available or
accurate.
• lack of organization and a lack of a
standardization of data formatting
• database design issues
• difficulty sustaining efforts
15. • Bring together and document disparate data
collection efforts
• Provide clear presentations of key historical
baseline data on water conditions at various
geographic levels
• Connect users to context information to aid in
interpreting the data
Vital to keeping Connecticut in the
forefront on environmental issues
Implications - Portal Design
16. Conversation with DEEP
• Extensive data, much not readily available
• EPA WQX portal -
http://www.epa.gov/storet/wqx/
• Connect with CTECO – main project
• Want to show the impact of what is
happening in environmental situations
– how it is impacting people and possible remedies
through data comparisons and temporal changes
17. Conversation with DEEP (2)
• User friendly of visualization and how to
communicate impacts
• Temporal / geographic comparisons
• Focus on how the data can tell the story
of what’s happening and impact on
people
18. Next Steps with DEEP/CTData
• CTData Collaborative exploring
sample data sets and shape files in
Weave
• Exploring pilot project
20. Selected Themes: Literature Search on
Water Quality Visualization
• Using visual aids or tools for statistical assessments
such as frequency plots, percentile control lines,
smoothing curves (moving average).
• Testing basic data management features like data
exporting, spatial analysis and representation
• OpenGL Library-a graphic library that allows
modeling bi or 3D environments using algorithms.
– helps design virtual environments.
21. Simple query system –get the data out there
Balances detail with complexity
Galveston
http://galvbaydata.org/WaterSediment/WaterandSedimentQuality/DataPortal/tabi
25. UMD
Ecocheck
How healthy is your
ecosystem?
Imagine if your research
could galvanize
volunteers to protect
their local river. Or
inspire politicians to fund
restoration activities, and
stimulate engineers to
devise ways to reduce
pollution.
41. Questions for Connecticut
• What would you as users want to see?
• How do we come together to design it?
• Roles and responsibilities
• Clearinghouse for data
–Data &Communication Initiatives
–Data sets/metadata
• Communication Structure
• Next Steps
42. • Tech tool as vehicle to increase value of what we are already doing
• Help with details on complexity
• QAPP-certification– levels of quality
• Citizen information.....way to log that –SeeClickFix
partnership....directconnection
• Table of what is out there in terms of water quality data collection
Editor's Notes
received a seed grant from the Jeniam Foundation to assess the interest in and possible design parameters of a data portal for Connecticut water quality data
2 min story – Early childhood portal – where we are coming from/ problem we have solved
Role and value added of Collaborative – Public private partnership
Reference Librarians
These tools can be installed on partners’ servers!
Slow process
Distribute hand-out: Working with a Co-Instructor (inverted pyramid) to each participant.
Talking Points
-To begin the planning process instructors should meet and discuss priorities.
-Then, the instructors might work together and/or separately to conduct a text review (at least of the first 3-5 chapters of the textbook).
-Finally, lesson planning, the day-to-day steps for each day’s classroom work, can begin.
