Development assistance for a robust watershed-wide water data collection, monitoring, and communication framework
In the Phase 1 report, Accelerating Transformational Change in Pittsburgh’s Three Rivers, one recommendation emphasized an opportunity to strengthen and leverage existing data-related efforts in the Southwestern PA region. Based on this recommendation, a second set of interviews were done between 2019 and 2020 with 18 key stakeholders involved with data collection/generation and data usage.
Initial findings are available in a discussion paper, Southwestern Pennsylvania Data Landscape. There appears to be interest behind unifying data efforts in the region – first by bringing together local stakeholders involved with data-related activities to assess and prioritize the opportunities identified by the Water Center team and developing a unified path forward.
In March 2021, a series of Data Roundtable Sessions were organized by the Water Center team, in partnership with the Academy of Natural Sciences, CivicMapper, and Three Rivers Quest (3RQ). The goal of these meetings was to facilitate discussions with SW PA stakeholders involved with data-related activities about what is needed to create a roadmap for regionally-driven water data collection, monitoring, and use to ensure informed decision-making around water resource management. From these meetings, an initial roadmap was developed (below).
Next steps for the SW PA Data Initiative
- Webinars are being organized with various data resources in the regions, including PA DEP, USGS, EPA. See above for the next event.
- Based on feedback from the Roundtable sessions, the Water Center team will be coordinating efforts to develop a framework to capture existing data-related resources in the region.
For more information
- To become more involved with the SW PA Water Data Initiative, join the Basecamp group using this link.
- For questions or feedback, contact Erica DePalma at edepalma@sas.upenn.edu
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