District debuts improved water quality data web portal

The District operates and maintains six continuous water quality monitoring stations in the Indian River Lagoon and three in the St. Johns River. This station (right) is in the Banana River Lagoon.

Up-to-date information now available to public
PALM BAY, Fla., June 9, 2021 — Public access to the most up-to-date water quality information in the St. Johns River and the Indian River Lagoon just got better, thanks to a web portal redesign by the St. Johns River Water Management District’s data collection and management team.

“People are interested in the health of our waterways, particularly the Indian River Lagoon,” said Christine Mundy, chief of the District’s Bureau of Water Resource Information. “The upgraded web portal increases our transparency as a public agency and improves access to data we collect at our continuous water quality monitoring stations in the Indian River Lagoon and the St. Johns River.”

Six water monitoring stations in the lagoon and three in the St. Johns River transmit continuous water quality data — including information about chlorophyll, water temperature, salinity and dissolved oxygen — which the District uploads and shares on its new Aquarius WebPortal at secure.sjrwmd.com/aqportal.

A user guide explains how to select station locations and data, display available parameters on a map, view charts of key parameters for related locations in dashboards and explore specific locations and parameters in a data set or chart.

Unlike manually gathered water samples, continuous water quality data provides a constant stream of information during all hours of the day and under a variety of weather conditions, offering a more complete picture.

“The data we collect can serve as indicators when algal bloom conditions are developing,” Mundy said. “The new portal also gives the public the same information we use in making long-term management decisions about our waterways.”