What is it?
One of our core missions at Water Rangers is to help people understand the health of their waterways! Our platform compares your water quality observations against established guidelines for protecting aquatic and human health, so you can see at a glance whether your results are within a healthy range.
The relevant guideline is applied automatically based on your country, the type of water body you're monitoring (freshwater or marine), and the parameter you're testing, like pH or temperature.
Some important notes:
- Not all parameters have guidelines or standards for human or aquatic health.
- Guidelines and standards vary from country, and even by state/province
- If the guideline for a parameter required an equation it was not included.
Our team has carefully researched the guidelines for each country and region, and every guide links directly to its source. That said, they aren't exhaustive. If there are guidelines or rules of thumb used in your region that we've missed, we'd love to hear about them!
View the guidelines here.
Why is it important?
Water quality criteria are official, science-based limits used to determine whether water is considered safe or healthy. Having them built into the platform means anyone monitoring a lake or river can see right away whether their results raise any concerns for swimming safety or the health of aquatic life, without needing to look up the standards themselves.
We've added guidelines for environmental and human health for Canada, the United States, and the UK, with more in the works.
Who is responsible in your organization?
Dataset administrators choose which guidelines and rules of thumb are applied to their dataset from the available options. Data contributors cannot edit the guidelines.
If you’re a data explorer or contributor
Relevant water quality criteria are applied to your test results automatically when you upload your data. You can view the guidelines and see how your results compare directly on the observation page.
If you’re a dataset administrator
You can choose which regional guideline set applies to your dataset (Canada, USA, or UK). While individual guidelines for each parameter can't be turned on or off separately, you can add regional rules of thumb to give your data additional context. You can also choose to opt out of guidelines entirely if that better fits your program.
To update your guidelines:
- Log in to your Water Rangers data account.
- Select the dataset you'd like to update.
- Click "Edit dataset."
- Select the "Details" tab.
- Scroll down to the "Required standards guideline" section.
- Update as needed and save.