Columbia Basin Water Collaborative taking shape
By Avery Deboer-Smith (Living Lakes Canada Program Coordinator) and Rory Gallaugher (Living Lakes Canada Hydrometric Technologist)
On June 18th, the Columbia Basin Water Monitoring Collaborative’s Steering Committee met in Nelson, BC to provide feedback and guidance on the monitoring framework. The face-to-face meeting had 21 steering committee members, some coming from as far away as Winnipeg.
The Columbia Basin Water Monitoring Collaborative is the current iteration of the Columbia Basin Water Monitoring Framework and Data Hub Initiative that got underway in November 2017 when Living Lakes Canada co-hosted the Cracking the Code in 3D: Water Data Hub and Monitoring Framework conference to envision a Water Monitoring Framework for the Columbia Basin. The conference was a follow up to the 2017 CBT report by Dr. Martin Carver titled Water Monitoring and Climate in the Upper Columbia Basin: Summary of Current Status and Opportunities in order to set the stage for a coordinated water data collection and applied decision making for the Basin.
Presented at the meeting was the research conducted on the database platforms that would best suit the Collaborative’s needs. Progress was made on all agenda items with direction provided by the steering committee for:
- outlining the specifications of the database by requesting that a wireframe of the database’s functionality be developed,
- determining scope of the monitoring that will be conducted and the criteria for selecting sites, and
- the data governance structure.
The committee’s feedback will be incorporated to ensure outcomes are reflective of the diverse groups represented. The Collaborative guidance document will be published by September 2019 once the final draft has been reviewed.
This 50-member collaborative is guided by a cross sector of civil society representing Indigenous and non-Indigenous community, all levels of government, academia and industry, and is funded in part by:
- Real Estate Foundation of BC
- Columbia Basin Trust
- Vancouver Foundation
- Royal Bank of Canada
- Sitka Foundation
- Tides Canada
