Water Security Agency makes data available to public

Saskatchewan’s Water Security Agency is making its data freely available to the public.

The agency said its new online GeoHub portal makes the data the agency uses to monitor and manage water resources available for anyone to access.

According to the agency, the data will let agricultural producers, industry and engineering groups, researchers, municipalities and other government agencies access data on demand, “enabling them to make critical decisions in their agricultural operations, planning, or research.”

The data available on the portal includes 17 geographic information system layers and four web maps, which the agency said will let users quickly search and download water data on demand.

“WSA is responsible for the majority of the government’s core water management responsibilities including protecting water quality, ensuring safe drinking water, reducing flood and drought damage, and managing water supply channels and 72 dams,” Jeremy Cockrill, minister responsible for the Water Security Agency, said in a statement.

“In order to perform all these vital functions and more, WSA relies on a wide range of data gathered from monitoring stations across the province and today we are launching the WSA GeoHub to make this information readily available to the public.”

Cockrill said the public release of the agency’s data follows a similar move last year, when the Water Security Agency released real-time data from a dozen soil and weather monitoring stations.

The agency’s new GeoHub can be accessed here.