Earlier this year, staff from the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) decided to use the Lake Observer App to jump start a volunteer lake monitoring program in the state. The GLEON Lake Observer team worked with Meghan Lally at CT DEEP to make modifications and fix bugs as she and CT Lake Watch volunteers began using the app to enter new data and upload historical data. Although there were a few challenges to tweak the bulk data upload process to allow for volunteers using water quality sondes to monitor their lakes, the collaboration resulted in improvements to the data submission process for all Lake Observer app users.
“Meg’s experience with the volunteer stream monitoring program helped provide valuable feedback on ways we could improve the app for use by citizen scientists,” said Lake Observer project coordinator Lisa Borre.
The CT Lake Watch program has submitted 12,913 observations this year, including 652 Secchi depth measurements and 11,523 water quality observations going back to 2005.
Updated: 11 August 2021