Riverkeeper and its partners collect water quality data across the Hudson River Estuary every month. Related data on drinking water, fish health, and climate is public but hard to find and use. At a time when environmental monitoring information is being removed from the public domain in the U.S., the portal brings all of this together so people can see where it's safe to swim, how clean their drinking water is, how the region's fish are doing, and how climate change is affecting the water.
We worked with Riverkeeper to find problems in their data and shape its structure. Then we built a back end where staff and partners can enter data, with basic calculations and formatting handled automatically. External datasets load on demand in the browser, which keeps storage needs low without slowing the site. Careful information architecture, cartography, and interaction design turn a large, varied region and many data sources into a clear path through the information.
This project was supported by federal funding secured by Senator Charles Schumer