One of Living Lakes Canada’s primary goals is to provide high-quality, easily accessible freshwater data to communities and decision-makers to support sustainable water management. Michael helped to further this goal during his time working with Living Lakes’ Columbia Basin Water Hub, our open-source repository for water data. As a Data Assistant, he helped with various data-related tasks, including converting Excel files into CSV file formats with manual quality control to improve data versatility for Water Hub users. Michael also worked to enable remote data access and optimized National Lake Blitz volunteer data for analysis. 

Michael has since transitioned from his Data Assistant position to studying Computing Science at Thompson Rivers University. His biggest takeaway from working with Living Lakes is that “it is essential for freshwater data from communities and local groups to be gathered, stored, and shared in a way that ensures appropriate visibility and access.”

Thank you, Michael, for sharing your passion for data processing with Living Lakes to improve freshwater data accessibility and functionality!