Latest news

The Executive Director (ED) will play a pivotal role in leading DataStream at an exciting time of growth.

Do you collect water quality data in British Columbia or the Yukon? If YES, we want to work with you! 

The Environmental Data Manager will join DataStream at an exciting time as our user community grows across Canada. The Data Services Manager will be responsible for ensuring DataStream is responsive to this demand while offering high quality service to our existing community.

Pacific DataStream is live! Launching at the Environmental Flows Conference in Kelowna, our latest regional hub already holds millions of water quality data points from across British Columbia and the Yukon, all open and available for anyone to explore and download.  

This World Wetlands Day, we are featuring three organizations that are monitoring and protecting Canada’s wetlands.

Charlotte has a background in biology with research experience in biogeography. She is passionate about data science, open data and environmental education. Here is a short Q&A to introduce Charlotte

We got a lot done in 2023! Thank you to our partners, collaborators, and everyone monitoring their waters and sharing data!

In 2019, the Nation developed a restoration plan for the Skutik watershed. “We are looking to restore as closely as now possible to how the Peskotomuhkati lived in the territory pre-contact,” explains Meyer.

DataStream.org is designed to support the DataStream community and celebrate our collective impact. Whether you want to see who we are and what we do, are interested in sharing or using data, or want to learn about water monitoring, DataStream.org has everything you need.

To paint a clearer picture, he partnered with researchers from 13 different universities, launching the NSERC Canadian LakePulse Network in 2016. Over the next three summers, teams of grad students and post-doctoral fellows headed out to monitor lakes from Newfoundland to the Yukon.  

Meghan joined us after finishing her master's degree at the University of Waterloo. Meghan will be contributing to the continued development of DataStream by working with data contributors and users across the Great Lakes region and beyond.  

In May, the DataStream team gathered in Toronto for the 66th Annual Conference on Great Lakes Research, hosted by the International Association for Great Lakes Research (IAGLR).

As part of our ongoing staff feature series, we are thrilled to profile DataStream’s Operations Coordinator, Lilian Tran!

In 2021, Living Lakes Canada launched the National Lake Blitz. The water stewardship organization had two goals: to ​help ​track the impact of climate change on Canada’s lakes and to make it easy for everyone to get involved in water monitoring, no matter their age or experience. 

Isotope data can be complex, and formatting isotope data can be a daunting task. That’s why we are so excited to release our new DataStream Guide: Best Practices for Reporting Isotope Data. The goal of the document is to support a consistent approach when handling isotope data.

In watersheds across Canada, temperatures are rising, rainfall patterns are shifting, and storms are hitting harder and more frequently. We’re seeing more droughts, floods, runoff and algal blooms. And the pace of climate change just keeps accelerating.

DataStream’s open access platform provides a place to share and access water quality data collected by diverse organizations across the country.

We want to hear from you! Take part in DataStream’s feedback survey 

The DataStream team continues to grow and we are thrilled to welcome Aislin Livingstone, Program Manager.

We got a lot done in 2022! Thank you to our partners, collaborators, and everyone monitoring their waters and sharing data!

The DataStream team continues to grow and we are thrilled to welcome Nell Libera, Data Specialist.

More than a million people depend on Steph Neufeld. As a watershed specialist at EPCOR, she keeps a close eye on the North Saskatchewan River, which provides drinking water for the city of Edmonton and the surrounding region.

Funding isn’t flowing: ending dry spell for freshwater action, is an op-ed published by the Hill Times by water monitoring leaders including Carolyn DuBois of DataStream.

To the casual observer, these could be two ice fishers out for a day on the lake. But, instead of lowering a fishing rod into the hole, Mary and Rick lower in a temperature probe.

to Lindsay Day, DataStream’s Program Manager, receives the Water’s Next Award in the Non-Government Leader category as part of the 13th annual Canadian Water Summit.

Groundwater is a vitally important resource, one that is often overlooked in freshwater management. Despite its importance, in Canada we know relatively little about how groundwater behaves, its quality, or how the quality and quantity have changed over time. This is why groundwater quality is the next data type that DataStream is actively working on adding to our open data platform.

Carolyn DuBois, DataStream’s Executive Director, has been awarded a 2022 Report on Business magazine Changemakers award.  

The success of the Northwest Territories-wide community-based monitoring (NWT-wide CBM) program is a testament to the power of collaboration in action. Running for a decade now, the program has grown to include 21 communities that collect water quality data from over 40 monitoring sites across the territory.  

We got a lot done in 2021! Thank you to our partners, collaborators, and everyone monitoring their waters and sharing data!

DataStream is excited to announce the beta version release of our new Custom Download tool! As the amount of data being shared on DataStream continues to grow, so too have requests for the ability to access specific subsets of data (e.g., all arsenic data in a given region) across multiple datasets. This tool is designed to do just that.

We are delighted to announce that we are partnering with RBC through Tech for Nature, to help drive the expansion of DataStream.  DataStream, an open access platform for sharing water data, currently operates in three regions--the Mackenzie basin, Atlantic Canada, and the Lake Winnipeg basin. The RBC Tech for Nature donation from the RBC Foundation is a multi-year commitment that will allow DataStream to expand across the country. Beginning in the Great Lakes, our proven model will grow to support a nationwide, innovation ecosystem. This is the latest stage in a long-term, highly productive partnership between DataStream and RBC. RBC Foundation has played an integral role in DataStream’s growth by contributing to the design and development of the blockchain technology that is integrated with the platform.  Blockchain technology enables DataStream to bring a new level of data security and transparency to water monitoring data in Canada. DataStream’s use of blockchain technology provides a way for people to verify that the data they are accessing on the platform is the same data that was originally uploaded and that it hasn’t been altered or tampered with. Blockchain diagram from here: https://lakewinnipegdatastream.ca/en/article/blockchain-and-datastream RBC Tech for Nature supports new ideas, technologies, and partnerships to solve pressing environmental challenges. Learn more at rbc.com/techfornature.

As a water researcher at the University of Waterloo, Dr. Nandita Basu creates models to help answer big questions. How well do wetlands protect against algal blooms? Where are the biggest hotspots for agricultural runoff? How is climate change affecting water quality? DataStream promises to make life easier for Basu and her colleagues. In fall 2021, the release of the latest regional hub, Great Lakes DataStream, will bring together water quality datasets throughout the Great Lakes and Saint Lawrence Basin in a standardized format.

An exciting collaboration that began in the Great Lakes will make it easier for Water Rangers testers anywhere to share data on DataStream.  Water Rangers equip communities throughout Canada with the tools to actively monitor and manage their waters. Now, through a new hub-to-hub connection, anyone in the Water Rangers network can increase the visibility and impact of their data by sharing it on DataStream as well. 

With continued DataStream growth and expansion into the Great Lakes and Saint Lawrence regions our team continues to grow too! We are thrilled to have Cristina Cismasu join us as the new Data Specialist based out of Quebec. 

DataStream’s Dive into Data webinar series is back for 2021! Following the success of last year’s sessions, the Dive into Data webinars will provide an opportunity to brush up on your data management skills, while connecting with other water data users.

What happens to water data after it has been collected by community monitoring groups? That is the driving question behind a Nova Scotia-focused research project that brought together academic, community and government voices. Led by Alice Cohen out of Acadia University in collaboration with Coastal Action and the Atlantic Water Network, and supported by the Change Lab Action Research Initiative (https://actionresearch.ca/), the research project included a workshop, interviews and online webinar, with a recent report summarizing the key findings.

DataStream’s new how-to video series provides guidance on using the open-access platform to publish and explore water monitoring data. The first four videos walk data stewards through various steps of the process, beginning with how to upload and update datasets:

A new online tool helps explain how water quality is measured and why it matters. The illustrated guide provides an introduction to some of the most important and commonly monitored aspects of water quality, including: physical properties, such as water clarity, pH and temperature chemical substances, like nutrients, metals, minerals and pollutants from human activity, and; biological characteristics, including coliform bacteria and chlorophyll

Recommendations that address how the federal government can strategically support community-based water monitoring (CBWM) efforts across Canada are now available in English and French. The Elevating Community-Based Water Monitoring in Canada documents were produced by The Gordon Foundation (who lead DataStream at the national level), Living Lakes Canada, and WWF-Canada, following a collaborative dialogue convened by the three organizations. 

2020 was a big year for us. Thanks to all who continued monitoring waters and getting the data out there!

With continued DataStream growth and expansion into the Lake Winnipeg watershed, our team continues to grow too! We are thrilled to have Mary Kruk join us as the new Water Data Specialist based out of Calgary, Alberta. 

The recently released WWF Canada 2020 Watershed Reports provide a national assessment of Canada’s freshwater. WWF Canada was able to efficiently draw on community based water monitoring (CBWM) data thanks to DataStream. Although the report shows the health of 60% of watersheds is unknown, there has been significant progress since the last assessment in 2017, with ten additional watersheds receiving a score. DataStream is designed to support communities driving the data-to-policy cycle so it is exciting to see that DataStream is playing a role in improving data access and putting community generated data on the map, so that it can be used in regional and national scale assessments and ultimately support decision-making.

DataStream’s visualization tool enables users to apply national water quality guidelines to datasets. Some key guidelines used by DataStream include the Canadian Water Quality Guidelines for the Protection of Aquatic Life  which serve as national standards set by the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment (CCME). These guidelines provide recommended ranges for some of the physical, chemical and biological characteristics that are commonly monitored in rivers, lakes, and oceans.

“Be the water bottle”. That’s the message from DataStream Data Specialist Patrick LeClair in this practical demonstration of what good data management looks like, taken from the recent Data Management Best Practices webinar.  Wondering what he could possibly mean?  Patrick uses two vastly different water samples, a cloudy concoction and a transparent liquid, to depict data while their containers - a hard to access box and an easily opened water bottle respectively - represent databases.

Technology has helped facilitate the growth of data sharing and the rise of open data – a movement that DataStream is proud to be part of. In this post we take a look at two important and complementary sets of guiding principles that underpin best practices when it comes to data stewardship and access.

DataStream’s new Upload Template (v2.0) makes it easier for data stewards to format data while allowing for new data types like sediment.

We are pleased to announce that DataStream now offers a bilingual site for sharing and accessing water quality data in Canada.   All website content is now available in French, across the Mackenzie DataStream, Atlantic DataStream, and Lake Winnipeg DataStream hubs.  

The creation of a Canada Water Agency, mandated by the federal government last year, is a unique opportunity to improve freshwater stewardship in this country. DataStream's Carolyn DuBois and Mathew McCandless of IISD Experimental Lakes Area contribute to ongoing discussions about the role of the agency.

We’re excited to launch a new Dive into Data webinar series to explore the (sometimes complicated) always exciting world of water data!

The publication of an open data standard is enabling valuable freshwater data to be organized, accessed, and shared in a harmonized way. This data standard underpins  DataStream, a growing online platform for sharing water data collected by Canada’s diverse water monitoring and research community.

Community-based monitoring groups of all shapes and sizes are taking action to protect rivers, lakes and wetlands. These are the amazing people and initiatives that inspire us to do the work we do here at DataStream.

DataStream’s new watershed boundary layers cut back on guesswork and make it easier to explore data in the regions that matter to you. We’ve incorporated watershed map layers across all three platforms thanks to geospatial data available on Canada’sOpen Government Portal(open data for the win!).

In May the Government of the Northwest Territories (GNWT) hosted over 40 water stewards from across the territory for a community-based water monitoring workshop. The workshop included training in monitoring protocols, results-sharing and discussion. It also provided an opportunity for some hands-on time with DataStream for water monitors to dive into all the data they’ve been collecting. 

Ensuring that water quality data on DataStream is easy to find, access, use and reuse is at the centre of our mission. For this reason, we have dedicated a lot of time exploring ways to integrate permanent identifiers into your datasets.

As DataStream continues to grow and evolve, so too does our team. We are thrilled to have Patrick LeClair joining us as Data Specialist Intern.

The Lesser Slave Watershed is a sub-basin of the much larger Athabasca Watershed.  There is a historical lack of data and monitoring within the basin.  However, the Lesser Slave Watershed Council, a Watershed Planning and Advisory Council that operates in the region, is working on changing that.

Happy Citizen Science Day! This April 13, we are celebrating the countless community-based monitoring groups and citizen scientists contributing their knowledge and energy to understanding the health of watersheds all across the country.

Arlo Clarkson’s beautiful photograph of Horn Lake was a winner in the 2017 NWT Youth Water Stewardship Photo Contest, and we are thrilled to share it on Mackenzie DataStream’s homepage! Water Program Coordinator, Aislin Livingstone, from The Gordon Foundation, caught up with Arlo to learn more about the story behind the photo. 

Slated for release later this month, the new Mackenzie DataStream will have a fresh new design and several upgraded features that make data sharing and searching easier than ever before: 

On November 27-28, a national discussion focused on identifying potential government supports for community-based water monitoring (CBWM) initiatives took place in Ottawa. More than 60 attendees, from across Canada, took part.

DataStream participated in the Ninth Annual NWT Water Strategy Implementation Workshop in Dettah, NT from October 24 to 25. This year’s workshop theme, “Linking Knowledges and Ways of Knowing,” focused on the need to draw from the strengths of different knowledge systems to achieve the vision of the NWT Water Strategy

Last week, DataStream joined over 100 freshwater organizations from across Canada for the 2018 Living Waters Rally. This year’s Rally took place near the shores of the Peticodiac River in Moncton, New Brunswick on the traditional unceded territory of the Wolastoqiyik (Maliseet) and Mi’kmaq Peoples.

With Blockchain technology, DataStream is bringing a new level of data security and transparency to our open-data platform. This blockchain verification tool is currently being piloted on Atlantic DataStream. 

Earlier this summer DataStream Coordinator, Lindsay Day, had a chance to catch up with Valérie Courtois, Director of the Indigenous Leadership Initiative, while in Fort Good Hope/Rádeyįlįkóé, NWT. The Indigenous Leadership Initiative is promoting a federally funded, Indigenous-led National Indigenous Guardians Network in Canada. Through Guardian programs across the country, Indigenous communities are managing, monitoring and protecting the land, water and wildlife of ancestral lands according to cultural values and Indigenous law.

On June 20, DataStream won the 2018 Water’s Next award for Project & Technology at the Canadian Water Summit in Vancouver. DataStream is an open-access, online platform for sharing information about freshwater health in the Mackenzie Basin.  The Water’s Next Awards celebrate achievements in the water community from storm water management to innovation in drinking water solutions, web technologies, local stewardship and more. DataStream promotes public participation and trust in water stewardship decisions.

This week, my team at GW Solutions shared a collection of water datasets on Mackenzie DataStream that we had compiled for a project for the Peace River Regional District and Treaty 8 Tribal Association. As any scientist knows, it can take a lot of time and effort to organize and pull data together. This is why we are so pleased to be making this information openly accessible on Mackenzie DataStream, so that it can be of benefit to others.   

Through a diversity of monitoring, stewardship and guardian programs, communities across Canada are playing an increasingly important role in gathering critical information about the health of their watersheds. As interest in community-based water monitoring (CBWM) grows, investments to organize and implement community-driven initiatives are being made. However, to realize the full potential of these efforts, there is a need for strategic thinking, collaboration, and coordination, including at the national level.

One of the exciting things about DataStream is watching it grow and evolve over time. Not only are more datasets coming online, but we are continually making it better thanks to the thoughtful feedback we get from DataStream users. Now, by popular demand, you can filter your search for monitoring data within the sub-basins of the larger Mackenzie River Basin. This is so important because it allows communities to view and compare data across shared waterways.

As the DataStream platform continues to grow and evolve, so too does our team, and we are excited to announce that Lindsay Day is joining us as the new DataStream Coordinator. Lindsay will assist with the ongoing expansion of DataStream, and will work with communities in the Mackenzie River Basin to continually improve the DataStream platform.

Fort Nelson First Nation (FNFN) and Geoscience BC have signed an agreement which will see FNFN take over four hydrometric stations in its territory. The monitoring information gathered will be shared by FNFN on Mackenzie DataStream where it can be connected with other water monitoring data in the region.

Mackenzie DataStream has come a long way since our official launch in November 2016. One year in, the platform continues to evolve and grow as a trusted home and source for community-based water monitoring data throughout the Mackenzie River Basin.

Mackenzie DataStream provides open access to water quality data throughout the Mackenzie Basin, but why is it important to measure different dissolved metals and hydrocarbons? Check out the video above to learn more about the importance of measuring mercury and the impact it can have on an ecosystem.

We have some every exciting news (which might have already been given away in the title); Mackenzie DataStream now contains data from Alberta! That means that DataStream has data from three of the six jurisdictions that the Mackenzie Basin covers, with more data coming your way soon.

Lana Lowe has been selected as one of the finalists for Water’s Next Award under the government category. Lana’s work as the  Director of the Lands Department of Fort Nelson First Nation  makes her a great recipient for this award. Lana is a hard-working, enthusiastic, influencer with a great sense of humour. She is a real pleasure to work with!

Earlier this month, the DataStream team travelled to Fredericton, New Brunswick to take part in the annual Canadian Environmental Grantmakers Network (CEGN) conference. During the event various important discussions were had on a wide array of topics including reforming Canada’s environmental laws, reconnecting with nature and protecting freshwater resources.

Community-Based Monitoring (CBM) is a fundamental part of collecting freshwater data in Canada. Mackenzie DataStream depends on the hard work of these CBM programs and their willingness to share their data online. However, many people around the country and the world do not know what CBM is or what it does. Tyler Carlson (Simon Fraser University), Alice Cohen (Acadia University) and Kat Hartwig (Living Lakes Canada) have put together “  A Snapshot of Community Based Water Monitoring in Canada ” to help educate people on CBM and answer some important questions surrounding the topic.