Western Canadian water data may soon become available to all with the Dec. 3 launch of the Water and Environmental Hub.
The open website platform is designed as a source of water-related data from Western Canada so it can be easily accessed by researchers, corporations, non-government organizations and individuals.
Alex Joseph, executive director of the project, said it is a response to concerns from water researchers at the University of Lethbridge who found it difficult to find statistical data for use in research.
A vast amount of water-related data has been compiled by agencies, governments and other sources, but it can be difficult to find and mould into usable formats.
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The open portal was established with $1.5 million from the federal Western Economic Diversification program and additional funding from the Alberta government and the U of L.
Joseph said it is hosted on a cloud service that can grow as needed.
He said search engines can locate water data, but WEHUB will allow anyone to upload and download information. As well, individuals, researchers and corporations that want to share data can establish a closed group on the hub.
Joseph works at Cybera, a nonprofit group that the Alberta government has made responsible for spurring innovation through cyber infrastructure.
“Potentially anyone that interfaces water data in any way has the potential to benefit from this system,” he said.
He sees four primary users of the hub:
• Academics can use it to find and share research.
• Governments can allow access to data through the hub.
• Industry can be more efficient in its data use or work with other companies to share data through a neutral source.
• Non-governmental organizations often don’t have resources to find available data on their own.
Joseph said minimal controls will be put on uploaded material.
“I think the majority within our group feel that it’s better to remain somewhat agnostic, with the premise that more information, on average, is likely better and it would be better to give the community the tools to comment, to rate, to reflect upon the data.”
The portal will also allow access through smart phone applications and other software.
WEHUB is accessible at waterenvironmentalhub.ca.
