By Tonya Bonitatibus, Damon Mullis, Rosco Peters, Lindsay Wallace
The Savannah Riverkeeper and Ogeechee Riverkeeper have used Esri products to facilitate the public’s access to their river basin data and subsequently created a powerful public resource.
An Abundance of Data
Hundreds of thousands of water samples are collected on waterways throughout the United States every year by multiple agencies, organizations, and individuals. Each sample helps tell a story about the health of a waterway and its ability to handle stress from a variety of sources. Those datasets are housed in various physical or digital locations and in different formats, making it difficult to make holistic, better-informed decisions.
Know Your River is a powerful tool, built using Esri technology, that collates data from over 40 sources into one interactive mapping and dashboard interface. Data is organized with an emphasis on ease-of-use and features four maps: Recreation, Surface Water, Groundwater, and Environmental Justice.
The Know Your River tool was built for two river basins as a pilot and has greatly benefitted home buyers, re-creators, scientists, activists, and agencies alike. It features a growing list of scientific studies on the Savannah and Ogeechee Rivers. It was built with a focus on data democratization using ArcGIS Hub, heavily relying on Esri tools such as ArcGIS Online, ArcGIS AppStudio, and ArcGIS Survey123.
The solution began with a giant spreadsheet listing as many water quality data sources for the Savannah and Ogeechee River basins as possible. Priority was placed on finding real-time data from data loggers or web services.
