Ribbons of Blue water quality data now going into WIN database

Water quality data collected by school and community groups can now be entered into the WIN (Water Information) database managed by the Department of Water.

This means that school and community groups will know their data is going into the database used as the primary source of information on our waterways and is used by scientists and land managers, and for documents like the WA Government's State of the Environment Report. 

For WIN it means that they are confident all water quality data is going into the state's centrally managed database that is run to high standards of quality control.

Ribbons of Blue works with approximately 250 school and community groups each year and has sampled from up to 700 sites. However only data that passes Ribbons of Blue Quality Assurance and Quality Control processes will be submitted to WIN.

Ribbons of Blue technical officers Amanda Fairs and Russell Gorton have worked with WIN staff John Patten, John Argus and Gary McCall to design data collection forms that capture the information WIN requires while being simple enough for school and community groups to use easily.

Ribbons of Blue data will be entered into the WIN database as a ‘field observation'.Ribbons of Blue has been collecting data on water temperature; pH; conductivity; turbidity; nitrogen; and phosphorus for 18 years. While this data is not at the same level of accuracy as that analysed by laboratories, it is very often the only data available for some sites and so an important contribution to the total picture.

We hope that in the near future that representative data from Ribbons of Blue records in WIN will be available on this web site.