Grantee Research Project Results
2003 Progress Report: Online Dynamic Watershed Atlas for Seminole County Florida
EPA Grant Number: R829320Title: Online Dynamic Watershed Atlas for Seminole County Florida
Investigators: Ornberg, Kim , Milch, Gabrielle , Campbell, Kyle , Burkett, Patricia
Institution: Seminole County Government, FL , University of South Florida , St. Johns River Water Management District , Florida Department of Environmental Protection
Current Institution: Seminole County Government, FL , St. Johns River Water Management District , University of South Florida
EPA Project Officer: Packard, Benjamin H
Project Period: October 1, 2001 through September 30, 2003
Project Period Covered by this Report: October 1, 2002 through September 30, 2003
Project Amount: $769,000
RFA: Environmental Monitoring for Public Access and Community Tracking (EMPACT) (2001) RFA Text | Recipients Lists
Research Category: Water , Aquatic Ecosystems , Air , Ecological Indicators/Assessment/Restoration
Objective:
The goal of the Seminole County Watershed Atlas project is to provide the citizens of Seminole County and the Orlando Metropolitan area with unprecedented access to quality assured water resources data and educational information in an easily understandable format. Through the grant, the Atlas will have increased usage and improved and enhanced water resource information.
Progress Summary:
The Environmental Monitoring for Public Access and Tracking (EMPACT) project is approximately 70 percent complete with significant progress in all of our major objectives. We anticipate all activities being completed on time based on the revised project schedule. Online features that have been implemented include real-time weather stations, an upgraded ArcIMS mapping application, and improved metadata capabilities. The real-time network of meteorological instruments has been deployed and tested, and the YSI water quality network of instruments is currently in the testing phase. Remaining activities include the final development of the curriculum, additional Atlas marketing, and online development of water quality data.
Objective 1: Maintain and Enhance State-of-the-Art Watershed Atlas Application (90 percent complete)
Activities completed for the maintenance and enhancement of the Seminole County Watershed Atlas included an upgrade to a new relational database structure that has allowed new online functionality and new data types to be displayed. The new version of the Atlas has an expanded mapping component, new ecology page, a section for news and events, a new series of research and metadata pages, and functionality for the new real-time network for both meteorological data and water quality data. The Atlas is a comprehensive resource and currently contains data for 233 water resources, including 196 lakes and 37 rivers within Seminole County. Data recorded in the Atlas reach back 82 years with the first sample recorded on January 1, 1921, and currently are updated as often as every 15 minutes. More than 163,550 data samples have been included in the Atlas. The samples originate from 42 unique data sources provided by 15 different data custodians.
The new map interface allows users to locate sampling locations by agency and by type. In addition, users can display different reference data sets, including land use, FEMA flood data, conservation lands, and aerial photography.
The ecology page now includes data from both Seminole County and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection biological assessment programs and allows users to browse a list of vegetation and macroinvertebrates that are found in the waterbody.
A series of pages has been developed for professionals that serves to document the data holdings of the Atlas database with appropriate metadata and allows users to download or graph period of record data for any specific parameter or sampling location. The download tool is intuitive and allows a stepwise process of locating the appropriate data.
The real-time data network created as a part of this grant is separated into two types of instruments. The first, which has been deployed, is the weather stations. The project team deployed and installed these stations at strategic fire station locations. These fire stations were chosen because of their location within a specific watershed and appropriate site conditions that were conducive to collecting meteorological data. The weather stations are operational, and data are streaming to the Atlas in 15-minute increments. These data currently are available online through our new tool. The water quality network will be online in 2004.
Objective 2: Strategically Expand Real-Time Water Resource Monitoring in Seminole County (85 percent complete)
As mentioned above, the weather station network is in place and fully operational. There are some data collection and transfer issues still being worked out with one of the stations. Currently, there are six new stations that have been deployed. The result is that with the existing U.S. Geological Survey stations, real-time meteorological data are available for all but 2 of the 16 major watersheds within the County.
The real-time water quality network has been deployed in five locations within the county, which include: Lake Jesup, St. Johns River, Big Econlockhatchee River, Little Wekiva, and Big Wekiva River. These new EMPACT-funded stations are complemented by an existing station located at Bear Lake. Currently, the units are sampling dissolved oxygen, pH, temperature, conductivity, total dissolved solids, chlorophyll, and turbidity. In addition to providing real-time environmental information to citizens, these units also serve Seminole County Public Works by providing timely supplemental data to be used in the assessment of water resource impairment under the Clean Water Act Total Maximum Daily Load provision, as all five of the stations are located on Impaired Waterbodies. Routine data transfer issues are still being worked out on some of the units, but should be completed soon.
Objective 3: Facilitate Data Sharing with STORET and Local Municipalities (90 percent complete)
The majority of the work to achieve Objective 3 has been completed. The Atlas has been programmed to export the SIM file required by STORET for loading data. Therefore, Seminole County's water quality data can be easily transferred to STORET through a semi-automated process. In addition, stored procedures have been developed in the Atlas database that allow STORET data to be regularly downloaded and updated on the Atlas. This application will serve other municipalities using the Atlas software to provide a much more efficient and quality assured process of transferring water quality data to STORET. All of Seminole County's data have been transferred to STORET using this tool, and we will complete one additional upload under the auspices of the EMPACT grant.
Objective 4: Engage Watershed Atlas Into School Curriculum To Promote Environmental Literacy (50 percent complete)
The public school team has developed a number of prototype activities for use in the classroom. These activities have been designed to meet Sunshine State Standards, and they currently are being tested.
The prototype site can be accessed on the University of South Florida's development server (http://131.247.163.5:12000/education/production Exit ). Remaining work to complete this objective is the testing of the curriculum by a select group of teachers. The teachers will be piloting the material in the classroom. In addition, some activities at the elementary education level are yet to be developed.
Objective 5: Effectively Market Atlas Web Site Throughout Metropolitan Area (50 percent complete)
Seminole County has coordinated with the local library system as well as the county government television station (SGTV) to market the Atlas. In addition, the County has produced a number of marketing materials to advertise the Atlas to the local citizenry. These materials include new storm drain plaques, key chains, pens, highlighters, and decals for the county vehicles. To complete the stated goals of Objective 5, there are plans to develop a new color brochure that can be distributed through all of the County's educational outreach programs. In addition, the County plans to produce an extended documentary for the SGTV station in 2004 that will highlight the Atlas.
Results
The Seminole County Watershed Atlas Web Site continues to be a primary resource for citizens and professionals alike to access quality assured information concerning the water resources of Seminole County. It has been especially useful with the implementation of the State's Total Maximum Daily Load process. Total hits to the site have increased by 35 percent from last year, and the number of page views has increased by 43 percent. Perhaps more importantly, the number of page unique visits has increased by 73 percent. This activity indicates that the site is being used more often and by more users throughout the metropolitan region. We anticipate that this trend will continue throughout the project as additional data sources are added and marketing efforts using grant funds will expose the site to additional users within the Orlando Metropolitan Area.
Future Activities:
Our planned future activities include implementation of online real-time network water quality data, further programming upgrades for the Watershed Atlas, marketing of the Watershed Atlas, and completion of curriculum development.
Journal Articles:
No journal articles submitted with this report: View all 11 publications for this projectSupplemental Keywords:
ecosystem protection, decision making, citizen education, water resources, watershed management, Florida, FL, Minimum Flows and Levels (MFLS), Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs)., RFA, Scientific Discipline, Water, ECOSYSTEMS, Ecosystem Protection/Environmental Exposure & Risk, RESEARCH, Water & Watershed, Monitoring/Modeling, Monitoring, Terrestrial Ecosystems, Environmental Monitoring, Ecological Risk Assessment, Ecology and Ecosystems, Urban and Regional Planning, Watersheds, aquatic ecosystem, EMPACT, remote sensing, water resources, wetlands, community-based approach, sediment transport, stream ecosystems, community water quality information system, stormwater, community outreach, community tracking, water quality, aquatic ecosystems, community partnerships, ecological models, Florida, ecology assessment models, water management options, watershed assessment, land management, stream ecosystem, land useRelevant Websites:
http://www.seminole.wateratlas.org Exit
http://www.wateratlas.org Exit
Progress and Final Reports:
Original AbstractThe perspectives, information and conclusions conveyed in research project abstracts, progress reports, final reports, journal abstracts and journal publications convey the viewpoints of the principal investigator and may not represent the views and policies of ORD and EPA. Conclusions drawn by the principal investigators have not been reviewed by the Agency.