The State Water Resources Control Board has adopted a resolution that would make the data behind local, regional and statewide management decisions available.
“The Water Boards were founded with commitments to transparency, public process and fact-driven decision making to manage our state’s water resources,” state water board member Joaquin Esquivel wrote in a press release. “This resolution focuses our agency on open data principles that further strengthen that foundation.”
Both the state board and regional water boards collect data and use it to inform decisions. In 2016, that data became available in more than 30 data sets and 50 data resources on the open data portal under the Open and Transparent Water Data Act (AB1755, Dodd).
“The Boards request, collect, process and provide vast amounts of data and information on the state’s water quality, quantity and uses. These data can be used to better serve the public through open and accessible information,” Esquivel wrote.
The boards run on 60 software applications, including 15 enterprise applications that manage data about the environmental conditions and regulatory compliance surrounding water.
The state is looking for ways to use the data like in the 2018 Safe Drinking Water Data Challenge, which resulted in the release of data tables on urban water use and water rates by public water systems. Two other projects include relaying data about lead in schools and the Water Board’s harmful algal bloom incident.
The data sets can be seen here.
