What We Do

From an information management perspective, good data is data that is well designed and well documented. Well designed data is of greater value as it meets both the direct needs of the users that create the data but also other possible users. Well documented data is valuable as other users can easily determine what the data is and how it can be used. Also well documented data, like well catalogued books, are easily discovered, accessed and used by others. Data often needs to be assessed for accuracy as well.

 

Examples of this work includes data flow definition for the source water protection process under the Clean Water Act as well as the creation of an amalgamated, standardized borehole database built from data from numerous agencies.

Data processing and analysis involves systematically carrying out mathematical and logical operations on data to meet a specific objective. Often new data, called derived data, is created in the process. Operations can be structured, where the different operations are clearly defined or ad hoc, where the steps are not known and are worked out as the process progresses. In all cases, data processing requires well-structured data (see above) and accurate monitoring of the steps taken and results achieved after each step.

 

Examples of this work include watershed analysis where data about streams and surface height are processed to derive watershed boundaries and where ground cover is analysed to estimate surface flow characteristics.

Airborne and Satellite images are very helpful in managing and protecting water resources. These images are used to identify features on the ground, locate objects (like wells) and measure the size of features. Some systems can sense energy that humans cannot see, like infra-red energy which is a good indicator of plant stress and potential ground water problems. Today, images are collected in digital form, which allows us to harness the power of the computer to analyze large areas quickly or make many more minute comparisons or measurements than is possible through human eyes.

 

An example of this work includes the purchasing, enhancement and distribution of Quickbird satellite imagery to conservation authorities to assist in source water protection processes.

Some datasets are large and require significant resources to create, so the Province works on behalf of local users to create these datasets at a standard level of accuracy across the Province. By gathering data from various sources across the Province, WRIP is able to match them together and adjust them to the same standard to allow all users access to similar datasets. This ensures local water protection efforts meet Provincial standards.

 

WRIP has produced a Provincial digital elevation model to be used in flow analysis as well as producing standardized river and stream databases for the Province.

Breakthroughs often occur at the local level or with individual working groups.  The best way of doing something may be found by taking the best methods from many different organizations rather than follow one group’s rules. Pulling all of this material together and publishing to practitioners takes cooperation, leadership and time. WRIP coordinates or participates in several working groups to determine best practices and distribute this important information.

 

Examples of this include technical working groups on source water protection, leading pilot studies in best methods for connecting diverse local databases and supporting pilot projects in the use of web mapping technologies.

Research and development (R&D) is key to improving the way water information is created and used in Ontario. While best practice development looks at collecting the best of what people are doing now, R&D involves figuring out the unknowns and discovering the new.  These activities look at questions such as the effects of wetlands on water quality, methods for modelling the movement of water through different soil types and different landscapes and the accuracy of new measurement methods.

 

WRIP supports applied research through direct cooperative research agreements, participation in science advisory committees and in the publishing of the results of its own applied research.

In the computer environment, users build tools using different software packages to standardize and automate different processes. The macros that users create in word-processing systems are simple examples of software tools. Tools can speed up repetitive processes or allow users to do other things while the tool works away. More importantly, tools can be distributed to other users so that everyone does certain processes the same way.

 

WRIP has developed a series of tools to assist in water management. These tools, called “The WRIP toolbox” are used by staff in many organizations across the province. Currently, WRIP is leading the development of a set of low stream flow assessment tools for use by conservation authority field staff. These tools will improve the collection of data and the provision of this data to others through standardized formats and databases.

Determining how to do things better is only the first stage of improving information management. These methods have to be passed on to end practitioners. WRIP develops and delivers workshops and courses based on the methods it has developed in-house and on the best practices it has learned both from other organizations and through its own best-practices development projects (see above).

After assembling the data and completing the analysis, water information is most often communicated through maps. Studies have consistently shown that people, especially the public, like maps as they make information easy to understand and they convey complex ideas easily. Creating good maps, however, takes skill and requires a detailed assessment of the data and ideas in the map, the intended audience and the final form of the map.  Increasingly, maps are not paper products.

 

WRIP produces a variety of maps to support different projects in WRIP as well as other water-related programs in the Provincial government. WRIP also works with stakeholders to develop mapping standards that ensures that similar maps produced by different agencies will all look and communicate the same way to end users and the public.