Columbia Basin Water Hub wins 2023 Open Data Quality Award

Gathering, storing and analyzing reliable water data lies at the core of Living Lakes Canada’s water stewardship work. As climate change impacts continue to occur with increased frequency and severity, long-term data will support the difficult decision making required for adaptation and watershed security. A recent accolade recognizes Living Lakes Canada’s commitment to high quality and accessible water data in response to safeguarding watersheds for generations to come.  

Our work for the Columbia Basin Water Hub was recently recognized at the 2023 Canadian Open Data Summit in Victoria, BC.  Maggie Finkle-Aucoin, the GIS and Database Manager with Living Lakes Canada, accepted the Open Data Quality Award from the Canadian Open Data Society in Victoria, BC.

“I am so proud of the work that we do within the Columbia Basin Water Hub. This award isn’t only recognition for us, but also for our contributors and the work they have done to improve their water monitoring practices and share their data, stories and efforts with us,” Maggie said. “This award belongs to all of the community within the Water Hub.”

Recognizing the critical importance of water data and the need to make it easily accessible, Living Lakes Canada established the Columbia Basin Water Hub as a central repository for water-related data in the Columbia  Basin region. Formally launched in 2021, the Water Hub now houses over 300 datasets from more than 50 contributors across multiple sectors, ensuring that high quality water data is easily accessible to decision makers, researchers, community groups, and anyone invested in understanding their local watershed. The Water Hub is the primary repository for the data collected through Living Lakes Canada’s Columbia Basin Water Monitoring Framework project which is building a unified monitoring network across the Basin to help track climate impacts on water sources. 

The Canadian Open Data Society has hosted annual Open Data Summits across Canada since 2015. The summits serve as a dynamic platform for experts and stakeholders to learn and collaborate on a variety of initiatives involving data, policy, innovation and more. Living Lakes Canada is grateful to the Canadian Open Data Society for recognizing the Columbia Basin Water Hub’s contribution to freshwater data quality and accessibility. The award is a valuable acknowledgment of the work that’s been invested in standardized templates, quality assurance practices, data grading schema, and making the hosted data machine-readable, all of which play a pivotal role in the platform’s success. 

“The Columbia Water Basin Hub is exactly the type of project that Link Digital is keen to be involved in,” said Marc Evans, Link Digital CEO. “It makes freshwater data more accessible and helps to solve real world problems by improving water stewardship and contributing to environmental conservation. As a proud partner organization, Link Digital encouraged the Water Hub to apply for this award and we're pleased their commitment to accessibility, engagement, equity, innovation and data quality has been recognized.”

For more information about the Water Hub, please contact Maggie Finkle-Aucoin at maggie@livinglakescanada.ca.