Quick Start Guide

Step 1: Register

Go to the registration page to sign up. You will receive an email to confirm your account. Confirmation is required before you can sign in. Check your spam folder if you're having trouble locating the confirmation email. Click here for more information on account registration

Step 2: Login and Update Profile

After confirming your account you can sign in from the login page. You should be redirected to your profile page. Make sure to enter your profile details before submitting data. You can also update your privacy settings if you wish. Click here for more information on logging in and updating your profile

Step 3: Join Projects (Optional)

If you are submitting data as part of a project you can join a project from the project page. Locate your project from the list and click the 'Join Project' button. You can view your current projects from the my projects page. Click here for more information on joining projects

Step 4: Set Preferred Waterbodies (Optional)

If you are only planning on submitting data for a specific set of waterbodies you can set these waterbodies from the my waterbodies page. Click the 'Add Waterbody' button and enter the details of your waterbodies, one at a time. Click here for more information on setting preferred waterbodies

Step 5: Submit Data

Data can be submitted to Lake Observer either using our mobile apps or through our web submission system. If you'd like to submit data through the web get started by visiting the data submission page.

• Navigate through the prompts to select your project, waterbody, and site. Additional Info
• Note, not all waterbodies will have sites listed. Additional Info
• If your location data (lat/long) is different from the autofilled information you can enter your location data into the lat/long fields.
• Set the correct date and time for when your data was collected. Additional Info
• Click each section for which you are submitting data to expand that section. Additional Info
• Enter the appropriate data into each of the fields. Required fields are marked with a '*'
• Click the submit button when all of your data has been entered.

Step 6: Viewing Data

Any data that you have submitted will be available from your my data page. From here you can view and edit all of your data. To see data that other users have submitted you can go the data search page. Enter your search parameters and click the search button. You can view the data in a table or on a map. You can also download data as a csv file from the search results table by selecting some or all of the dispalyed data and clicking the 'Download Selected Entries' button.

If you have any additional questions, please refer to the full Lake Observer documenation page. If you cannot find an answer to your question you can reach out to us from the contact page.