Researchers from CUNY – Brooklyn College, Columbia University’s Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN), and Cornell University have recently released the Jamaica Bay Water Quality Data Visualization and Access Tool, an interactive web application for visualizing and downloading water quality data from Jamaica Bay. Developed with funding from the U.S. Department of Interior as part of a series of post-Sandy research projects coordinated by the Science and Resilience Institute at Jamaica Bay, this new tool provides a centralized location to learn about and access over a century of water quality data collected in Jamaica Bay.
The project team standardized and cleaned-up thousands of water quality readings provided by National Park Service Gateway National Recreation Area and the New York City Department of Environmental Protection into one comprehensive dataset that extends from 1909 to 2013. These data were entered and translated into an interactive data visualization tool that allows for easy access to the full dataset and online viewing of eleven years of data. The team plans to ingest the entire dataset in the future.
According to the project’s Principal Investigator, Brett Branco, the tool will make it easy for a large and diverse group of users to access information about Jamaica Bay’s water quality. “We talked to researchers, resource managers, educators and non-profit organizations to find out what they wanted and how to build the most useful application. I anticipate that the tool will contribute to resilience practice by engaging a wider audience in thinking about water quality in the Bay.”
The project team is identifying other water quality datasets that may be integrated into the database in the future and planning additional information layers that will contribute to the understanding patterns and changes in water quality. Co-PI at CIESIN, Sandra Baptista, noted, “We’re also exploring opportunities to coordinate with other Jamaica Bay data providers to develop a Jamaica Bay online data portal.”
You can access the tool here: http://www.ciesin.columbia.edu/jbwq/
The project team is comprised of the following individuals: Brett Branco (Principal Investigator), Annesia Lamb, Danielle Alexander at Brooklyn College; Sandra Baptista (Principal Investigator), John Scialdone, Dara Mendeloff, Sri Vinayagamoorthy, Annie Gerard, James Carcone at CIESIN; Patrick Sullivan at Cornell University; Mark Ringenary at Gateway National Recreation Area; and Beau Ranheim at the NYC Department of Environmental Protection.
The project team will present their tool on April 20 as part of the ‘Research of Jamaica Bay’ Webinar series, hosted by the Science and Resilience Institute at Jamaica Bay.
