California Water Data Challenge launched by state agencies in conjunction with White House Council of Environmental Quality

The California Water Data Challenge was launched last Friday by several state agencies in partnership with the White House Council of Environmental Quality as a competition to develop innovative, data-based tools to help California address its drought, now in its sixth year. The competition is also designed to help California assure a reliable and sustainable water system for the coming years.

Gov. Jerry Brown administration and the California Water Action Plan seeks new ways to leverage publicly available datasets in novel ways to support creative solutions to California’s water challenges. The California Water Data Challenge invites individuals and teams to develop apps, websites, data visualizations and other tools to help achieve this objective. The entry deadline is Monday, Dec. 5 and awards will be announced on Friday, Dec. 9.

The data challenge is guided by the California Water Action Plan, which is a roadmap toward a sustainable water management path in California. Based on the plan’s objectives, participants entering the water data challenge are asked to address how data might be used to help achieve more reliable water supplies, make California’s water systems more resilient for the future and restore important species and wildlife habitat. The Water Action Plan highlights the need for more accessible data to help achieve these broad goals.

“This challenge allows us to take the data we have today and actually use it to far greater effect—to benefit water quality, ecosystem management, or any aspect of managing water resources,” said Felicia Marcus, chair of the State Water Resources Control Board. “We have learned that the creative energy this type of event generates in a short period of time yields phenomenal benefits, so we are grateful to the Council on Environmental Quality for partnering with us on this project.”

“We have an opportunity to invite the tech community to share innovative, data-driven solutions to address California’s water challenges,” said Mark Cowin, director of the California Department of Water Resources and one of the sponsors of the California Water Data Challenge. “California is facing climate change head on with increasingly extreme weather conditions. Water conservation is the new norm. Smart use of data will help all Californians better adapt to our water realities, both today and in the long-term future.”

Individuals and teams entering the water data challenge will have access to a wide variety of water-related datasets available through the State of California’s Open Data Portal: (https://data.ca.gov/) and through the National Water Quality Monitoring Council: (http://www.waterqualitydata.us/), which maintains a data portal housing water quality information from federal agencies. Additional water-related datasets can also be obtained from the agencies that collect and maintain water data in California.

Participants are invited to avail themselves of publicly available data to create tools that focus on supporting specific challenges as outlined in the Water Action Plan, including: uncertain water supplies; water scarcity/drought; declining groundwater supplies; poor water quality; floods; supply disruptions; declining native fish species and loss of wildlife habitat; and population growth and climate change.
Those interested in participating must submit their entries by 5 p.m., Monday, Dec. 5; judging and announcement of the awards will take place on Friday, Dec. 9. For more information on the challenge and how to get involved, visit the California Water Data Challenge website at: www.waterchallenge.data.ca.gov/. A virtual check-in meeting will be held Nov. 10 for participants to ask questions and share initial concepts. You can learn more about the California Water Data Challenge from the White House Council on Environmental Quality’s announcement at: https://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2016/10/28/using-data-build-sustainable-water-future. Final entries can be sent to: [email protected]. For additional questions and information not answered at the above sites, contact: http://waterchallenge.data.ca.gov/Contact/index.html.

The State Water Board and the California Department of Water Resources along with the California Fish and Wildlife, California Government Operations Agency and the California Department of Technology, are sponsoring the data challenge.