Monday, October 9, 2017

A Crystal Clear View of Water Infrastructure Data

The State Auditor Infrastructure Stress Transparency
Tool is ready for fall, and for your data needs.
A tech dispatch from Mel Reeder, chief information officer at the League:

Do you find data to be clear as mud? Actually, information about city water treatment is now clear as clean water! The Office of the State Auditor (OSA) recently released their interactive map tool. This quick tool was given a long name: “State Auditor Infrastructure Stress Transparency Tool Version 2.0.”

Don’t let that scare you—accessing enormous amounts of information is quicker than saying the tool’s name.

Here are just a small handful of the filters available
to hone in on just the info you need.
By using one click of your mouse (ok, maybe two clicks) you can display data onto a map of Minnesota and quickly gain insight about drinking water, water treatment, and the infrastructure within Minnesota cities, counties, water basins, or watersheds. It’s all there! The age of sewer systems is displayed in three colors for easy identification. By using color and graphics large amounts of data about Minnesota’s water becomes crystal clear.

In addition to infrastructure age, you can dig into other significant details and compare city systems side-by-side. Too much information? No problem, there is a filter for that too.

I encourage you to venture into the OSA tool. You will quickly get a clear picture of your city water and treatment infrastructure too.

City-specific data. Oh yeah.
The tool was launched about a year and a half ago and was developed with feedback collected by the State Auditor during statewide tours (one of the stops was here at the League!). The update was supported by a grant from the Bush Foundation.

Watch a video overview of the State Auditor's Infrastructure Stress Transparency Tool Version 2.0

Check out the Minnesota State Auditor's Infrastructure Stress Transparency Tool