Water Quality Dashboard for Woodinville Water District

Woodinville Water District has served customers in King County, Washington, since 1963, adding sewer services in 1969. It is the tenth largest water and sewer district in Washington state, with over 14,700 water customers and nearly 3,500 sewer customers.

The district needed a way to visualize chlorine sampling levels at each water sampling station easily. Receiving a formatted text file of data each month and using Microsoft Excel to graph and visualize the results was time-consuming to build and incorporate with previous data and difficult to interpret across different time periods. It also required institutional knowledge about the sample locations to identify where issues might be related to each other. The goal was to create an intuitive visual interface to allow staff to view, query, and monitor chlorine levels more effectively. The district wanted to leverage its Esri Enterprise environment to make the best use of the GIS data associated with the sampling sites themselves so they could manage the interface themselves. 

After meeting with the client to identify their needs and requirements, FLO developed a proof-of-concept dashboard for users to test and provide feedback on, which we incorporated immediately to determine an effective visualization approach quickly. At the same time, FLO assessed the sampling data received and began working out a data schema and storage approach that would effectively allow integration with existing GIS data and the ArcGIS dashboard while meeting user needs. As the District was using an Esri Enterprise geodatabase hosted in SQL Server, we had the opportunity to leverage their existing tools in various ways. It was determined that loading the chlorine data into a SQL Server table would be the most effective way to store it in the long term. Once there, creating a custom database view in SQL Server was simple, combining the testing locations and chlorine data and configuring it to meet the Esri dashboard and filtering requirements already established. This view was then published to ArcGIS Enterprise and is available as a layer in their portal. This layer serves as the foundation for the dashboard, allowing for dynamic and visual representation of chlorine levels across the district and allowing it to be pulled into ArcGIS Pro for analysis or used in various other maps and applications if desired. Appending new records to the sampling table automatically updates the view and the dashboard. 

With the dashboard in place, Woodinville Water District could effectively visualize, explore, and monitor chlorine levels across their service area, over any timeframe they choose. The dashboard provides a clear and intuitive interface, allowing them to see trends in sampling data. This enhanced visibility into chlorine levels helped the district make informed decisions, ensuring water quality and compliance with regulatory standards. The solution also streamlines their data management process, making it easier to integrate new testing data and keep the dashboard up to date through automated tools, which allow them to incorporate results weekly instead of monthly. Since the dashboard is in their ArcGIS Enterprise, District GIS staff can easily make changes to accommodate user requests. If a new sampling location is added to the GIS, the view will automatically join any sampling records that are generated for it. Overall, water quality staff have welcomed the new dashboard as it makes it easier to visually see exceedances or issues while still being able to dive into the details if desired.