The South Carolina Water Monitoring Portal - A Hub for South Carolina Water Quality Monitoring Data

Abstract

The South Carolina (SC) Water Monitoring Portal is an ArcGIS-based, geospatial application that incorporates water quality data from a variety of sources and projects them onto an interactive map. This application will provide those interested in accessing and retrieving South Carolina water quality data with a free and easyto- use tool that allows for spatial visualization, interaction with, and direct download of data. At the time of this publication, the application accesses roughly four million water quality data records collected by seventeen different organizations. To allow users to seamlessly find and access the data they need, filters are available to query the data to match the user's needs. Once users find the data applicable to them, they can download and export it into various formats. The application also allows groups and organizations to indirectly upload their own water quality data to have it incorporated into the application. With these capabilities in a spatial format, this application has the potential to provide many benefits. For example, in academia it could be utilized in both classroom and research settings, and regulatory agencies could use this application to communicate water quality from a spatial viewpoint, potentially fostering a better understanding of water quality to stakeholders. The management and protection of our state’s waters are difficult to achieve when the data pertaining to water quality isn’t easily accessible or available in a user-friendly format. The SC Water Monitoring Portal has the potential to aid in the protection and management of our state’s waters as it makes water quality data more accessible and the retrieval of data more user-friendly. The SC Water Monitoring Portal is hosted on the South Carolina (SC) Sea Grant Consortium and the College of Charleston’s Lowcountry Hazards Center websites, making it available to anyone interested in water quality data in the State of South Carolina (available online: www.scseagrant.org/SCWMP).