Data into Action: the Making of an Early Warning System Prototype for Lake Erie

Observation data are often buried in online catalogs or portals. While they are publicly available, they are often not used to their fullest potential simply because stakeholders do not know about them or they are difficult to use. More frequently, stakeholders get overwhelmed by the data available in the portals. To bridge the gap between data and stakeholder, the Great Lakes Observing System (GLOS) developed a prototype information tool to get data and information to stakeholders quickly and easily.

The prototype is part of a three-year effort led by GLOS under the U.S. IOOS Ocean Technology Transition (OTT) Project to operate a sustainable HABs Early Warning System (EWS) for Lake Erie. The goals are to stabilize and enhance: 1) in-lake monitoring capabilities, 2) the data management services in handling these monitoring data and 3) the delivery of crucial HABs information that meet the needs of Great Lakes region. The OTT HABs EWS is envisioned to be dynamic and flexible to serve the various audiences who need to understand the water quality conditions, including water intake managers, federal, state and local leaders, beach managers, and recreational users.

To illustrate the potential of an EWS, this application prototype demonstrates the end-to-end workflow of data to information. It targets water intake managers as the end-user and provides them actionable intelligence through an automated system that alerts them when water quality levels exceed some preordained safety threshold. The prototype handles real-time water quality data including turbidity, chlorophyll, blue-green algae, and pH. Users can log into the web to set alerts based on their own thresholds. Alerts are texted to the user and include a link to lead them to an online dashboard for more information. Future enhancements to the tool will include the integration of various types of model, near real-time toxicity, and grab sample data.