The value of scientific data depends on how--and how much--they are used. Every year, biologists with the National Park Service’s Southeast Region Inventory and Monitoring (SER I&M) Division collect and synthesize data on the plants, animals, and ecological health of more than 50 parks across the Southeastern US and its territories. The purpose of these data is to help park managers and resource scientists make sound, science-based decisions to preserve our parks’ natural resources. In getting data from the field biologist to park end users, we face many challenges typical of large-scale monitoring programs: 1) data collection and synthesis protocols differ across the five I&M networks in the Southeast Region; 2) many time-intensive steps--data entry, quality control, analysis and synthesis--create a lag between when data are collected and when they are available for use; 3) I&M and park end users have varying levels of statistical literacy; and 4) hard-copy reports can be cumbersome for use in resource planning.
To address these challenges, SER I&M is developing data dashboards that automate routine data-processing steps and provide end users with interactive tools for visualizing and understanding park monitoring data. We present a case study of lessons learned and early outcomes from our work with SER I&M networks to create a water quality data dashboard.
Results/Conclusions
We worked with biologists, data managers and park end users to identify and test dashboard features that would facilitate a quick and easy turnaround of data from field collection to their use in resource planning and management. To this end, key features of the water quality data dashboard include error-checking tools for data quality control, ability to overlay trend data on park maps, ability to generate reports of data summaries and statistical outputs with interpretive captions, and extensive flexibility to filter, sort, and visualize data with a variety of graphing functions. Presenting water quality monitoring data in an interactive data dashboard increases the use and usefulness of these data for a broad range of end users. In addition, our user-centered design process for developing the dashboard has increased collaboration and discussion along the entire data monitoring chain—from field biologists to data managers, data analysts, and park end users.