Freshwater breakthrough
· CastanetOn the surface, Canada appears rich in freshwater.
Yet, as communities across the country continue to face increasing water scarcity, it’s clear that more water data is needed to understand and sustainably manage freshwater sources.
Water data provides essential information to support local climate adaptation efforts and inform decision making on freshwater use. Safe, centralized repositories are a vital component in the water security puzzle, providing secure data storage and easy access for those who need it.
Living Lakes Canada’s Columbia Basin Water Hub is specifically designed to address this need effectively.
The Water Hub brings together over 400 datasets and seven million data points from over 50 contributors. The extensive water data covers lakes, streams, wetlands, snow, glaciers and more. The data is collected by stewardship groups, governments, consultants, and industry.
As a strong regional data model within the national data landscape, the Water Hub’s success stems from meeting contributors where they’re at and providing tailored support to meet specific user needs.
Since receiving the Open Data Quality Award from the Canadian Open Data Society in 2023, the Water Hub has continued to evolve to meet the expectations of its data users and contributors.
Most recently, with support from Living Lakes partner Link Digital, a global leader in CKAN and open data solutions, the Water Hub has launched an entry-level data visualization tool to better serve the data community.
Enhanced data visualization for watershed insights
In response to user feedback, Link Digital developed a custom graphing tool to create an interactive and accessible data experience.
Designed with the Water Hub’s community of users in mind, this easy-to-use tool transforms raw data into clear, compelling visuals.
It helps users tell meaningful data stories that can deepen community engagement and effectively inform decision making. The new visualization capabilities allow users to better understand the data they collect, spot preliminary trends, and effectively communicate findings with wider audiences, especially those without a scientific background.
“These graphing upgrades are a real bonus to groups like the Rossland Streamkeepers,” said Bill Coedy, program manager with the Rossland stewardship group. “With the ability to layer multiple years of data, it allows us, and anyone interested in our water data, to easily visualize year-over-year trends and gain high-level insights into the changes happening in our watershed.”
The graphing tool offers users a variety of basic data visualizations, including pie, bar, and line charts. It enables users to track key variables such as water level, discharge, and temperature over time, with the ability to zoom into specific time periods for a more detailed view.