Event

The Department of Earth & Environmental Science

University of Pennsylvania

Invites you to attend a EES Seminar Series

Friday, March 25th - 3:00 PM

Dr. Scott Ensign

Assistant Director

Vice President and Research Scientist

Stroud Water Research Center

"Water Data Collaboration in the Delaware Basin and Beyond"

Over 6 million people in the US monitor water quality, and most of them are not water quality professionals. Where does this water data go, how is it used, and how can scientists utilize these rapidly-growing data sources? The Delaware River Watershed Initiative provides an example of a water quality monitoring network comprised of over 40 NGOs across a four state region that generates over 240,000 automated, sensor-derived measurements per day. Data are immediately and openly published to the node-and-hub structured Internet of Water leading to widespread publicity of pollution events, like winter road salt contamination of waterways. Moreover, because monitored locations are independently chosen by NGOs, the DRWI network captures a unique distribution of land use relative to other monitoring networks. Stroud Water Research Center curated and synthesized DRWI sensor data into a multi-metric water quality score designed for communicating results back to the NGOs who collected the data. This DRWI example highlights both challenges and scientific opportunities for using the increasingly findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable data being generated by NGOs. While new digital infrastructure and lower-cost monitoring tools have created an exciting frontier for water data collection, effective collaboration remains the most important factor in generating scientific and societal outcomes.

Information on Dr. Ensign's research can be located here:

https://stroudcenter.org/people/ensign/