In response to this challenge, Alberta WaterSMART, the Bow River Basin Council, IBM Canada and Tesera Systems...

with funding and support from the Alberta Research Council, and the Suncor Energy Foundation, and the Alberta Water Research Institute, are developing the not for profit Alberta WaterPortal (WaterPortal) project.

We want the WaterPortal to be a catalyst and capacity builder, a collaborative, multi-stakeholder community for the sharing of water knowledge. A place where anyone can easily find and contribute to the information and knowledge needed to make better water management decisions, and become more actively involved in conserving water. It is our intention to do this in partnership with others already engaged in such activities. We plan on working closely with federal, provincial and local municipal government departments and agencies, as well as industry, educational and research institutes, and other water management and stewardship organizations to bring about this access in a way that adds value and is complimentary to the work many are pursuing.

There are two critical gaps in the existing approach to designing and managing information networks for our province’s water resources. First, there are collective information and knowledge gaps in our water research, water monitoring systems and best industry practices. Second, much of the water data and information that is publicly available is not readily accessible, is expensive, or is not easy to locate, share or analyze with user-friendly tools.

The need to fill these gaps is becoming more acute as watershed groups, industry sectors and others are being called upon to develop water management and conservation plans. In addition, the issue of watershed protection is becoming a key public concern and is creating increasing demand for more information sharing and discussion on water from a whole new community of people that were not previously engaged in the issue.

In Alberta, there are over 1,000 water-related organizations, each with different stakeholders and perspectives on the province’s water challenges, opportunities and solutions. Each of these organizations is developing local and proprietary websites, datasets and tools in order to reach their communities of interest. The challenge is how to connect this collective community of water stakeholders and all of this water information and knowledge, in a way that adds value and is complimentary to the goals and work that each of these groups are pursuing?



The key elements of our business model:

• Independent, not for profit organization working in partnership with all water stakeholders;

• Community-based web portal focused on water;

• No cost, charges or fees for users to participate;

• Open sharing of all water data and information;

• Reaching out and connecting divergent interests and content sources, and encouraging dialogue;

• Web 2.0 technologies supporting user friendly applications, modules, features and tools.

Today’s water challenges and opportunities clearly cross many different jurisdictions, stakeholders and communities. Addressing the protection, allocation and management of our water resources and water systems requires creative mechanisms for dialogue and networking, as well as coordinated efforts to explore and share data and experiences among water users, managers and researchers.

The benefits of a well-designed, modern community portal are numerous. A good community portal drives more traffic to other sites in the community, and makes it easier to find the community on the Web. The community portal has the potential to score higher in search engine ratings because of it's broader and inclusive approach to community information. The community portal not only informs users within the community, but equally important it lets others, from outside the community, learn more about the community itself. A feature-rich community portal with multiple ways to inform community members has the potential to increase user participation, while helping users to make more informed decisions. Finally, a community portal can help user groups save money by spending less time and resources on acquiring and managing technology, software and tools.

Through a growing program of public and private sector partnerships, some of which are unique, the WaterPortal is making it easier for users to search for and contribute water data, research, news, opportunities and best industry practices. The project team is working closely with federal, provincial and local municipal government departments and agencies, as well as industry, educational and research institutes, and other water management and stewardship organizations to bring about this free and open source access to more water data, information and knowledge.

The WaterPortal is also working to create a new dialogue about water that brings people together in a fresh, new, exciting, and engaging way that encourages the sharing of water data, research, information and knowledge. Supporting a variety of media formats including video, photos, blogs, podcasts and other dialogue tools, the WaterPortal is connecting groups with individuals wishing to share their water related insights and opportunities.

In addition, the project team is developing a series of Water Modules that will integrate with the WaterPortal’s general features and core functionality, and will provide users with detailed insights, information and tools related to specific water topics. For example, the Water Data Access Module is currently being developed, in partnership with the Alberta Water Research Institute, to provide users with easy access to available water data on Alberta. This data will be referenced back to geo-spatial and meta data, and will provide users with a web-based window to easily search, access and analyze water data for any location(s) throughout the province. There are several other WaterPortal Modules under development.

A detailed business plan was completed over the past year, which outlines the goals and objectives of the WaterPortal, as well as the staffing, governance and financing plans. The business plan has been distributed and presented to key government, industry and watershed organizations in Alberta’s water community, and we are continuing to secure new partnership opportunities for the project. A copy of the business plan is available, on request.

We hope to engage the active participation of all Albertans in managing our water resources by promoting free access, dialogue and innovation, and the open sharing of timely water information and solutions. If you can help, take our survey, tells us what you're looking for...something new, sharing knowledge, real time, about all our water. The Alberta WaterPortal will change how we collectively share and collaborate on this information and knowledge, for the benefit of all Albertans.

We are proud to announce the WaterPortal will soon be "Powered by Water" and will be hosted using 100% hydro-power, a carbon free source of energy!