Water Rangers’ new data platform

data.waterrangers.com

Since launching our data platform in 2015 (and giving it a refresh in 2018) we’ve learned so much about how our community collects and shares water quality data. That knowledge has shaped how we’ve rebuilt our platform from the ground up, with one big goal in mind: to better support community monitoring, now and into the future.

Over the past two years, our team has worked hard to make the platform more intuitive, more robust, and more secure. Starting June 10, we’ve begun migrating groups to the new platform in batches so we can support a smooth transition for everyone.

The main transition is complete!

Everyone should be transferred over to the new platform now. You’ll need to reset your password to login (we don’t store passwords).

We are in the final stages of building the new iOS app. For the next couple of weeks, please complete data entry on the website.

If you notice anything that’s not quite right, or if you have any concerns, please reach out to us at contact@waterrangers.ca. We are keeping backups of the old site going for a while until we’re sure everyone’s data is in. The next step is to organize the data. Thanks for your patience while we make the transition!

Here’s what you can expect:

A familiar flow for data entry

We’ve done our best to keep the data entry process familiar and straightforward. If you’ve used Water Rangers before, it should be almost the same. If you struggle to find something, let us know, as we’re making improvements daily at the moment.

Smarter data structure and sharing

Datasets are now easier to manage for organizations with multiple purposes and more flexible to match your group’s monitoring needs. Plus, sharing your data with others is easier, and our new API means you can combine data with other sources into your own dashboards. Our new data structure means that we can closely align or translate into data standards, allowing it to be shared more widely. You can see examples of our new data platform sharing on the GetData platform and the CaSTCo data platform in the UK. More integrations are coming soon!

Clearer links between equipment and data quality

We’ve made improvements to help you track what equipment was used for each test. This helps us give you better guidance on best practices, catch out-of-range errors, and help those using your data to understand its data quality. More improvements are coming soon to make this even better!

Built-in tools for basic data interpretation

Our platform gives you basic visualizations: we’re adding in country-based standards for many parameters and context to help you start interpreting your data. We’re looking at ways we can take this to the next level. For us, though, we know that interpreting data depends on your story, so we make it easy for you to download the data and display it how you wish.

Improved security to block spam and bots

We’ve added measures to help keep the platform secure and reliable for everyone. In some cases this means an extra step, but we’re continuing to try to improve this to make it smooth for you, but stop the bots 🙂

Using the new platform and something went wrong?

We’re actively developing the site, and sometimes you uncover something we didn’t. If you receive an error, or can’t do something that you think you should be able to, please email us at contact [at] waterrangers [dot] ca.

Include:

  • Time you encountered the error
  • What you did to make the error occur
  • What device and browser you were using

We’ve been working with water testers to make sure it works well and we depend on you to tell us so we can fix it for everyone!

A platform built for growth

This rebuild lays the foundation for exciting new features and partnerships in the future. Think of this as the launchpad for what’s next! We’ve got a pretty exciting roadmap we’ll be putting out there soon.

We’re so grateful to our testers and funders who made this possible. If you haven’t been moved over yet, don’t worry—we’ll be in touch soon!

👉 Explore the new platform at data.waterrangers.com

Special thanks to our funders who have made this project possible. Read more about how we keep our data platform free for communities.