Making Sense of Continuous Monitoring Data

Making Sense of Continuous Monitoring Data

Monitoring data is essential for evaluating the current conditions of the environment and predicting its future states. Recent technological advancements have led to development of low-cost automated in-situ sensors that can measure water quality parameters at much more frequent time intervals than traditional monitoring methods. While this higher temporal resolution can better capture variation and changes in water quality conditions, interpreting the data produced requires analysis methods that address the complexity of the data and new ways of synthesizing and communicating the data to interested audiences.

This study examines how people understand and draw conclusions from water quality monitoring data collected at differing time intervals. It seeks to identify the heuristics people use to make sense of the data, the characteristics of the data people focus on when they interpret the data, and how people construct meaning as the temporal resolution of the data changes, and people’s perspectives on the use of differing metrics to evaluate the condition of the water body being monitored. Results from this research will help inform how to synthesize and communicate continuous monitoring data to audiences of differing backgrounds and interests. Knowledge of what characteristics of the data people pay attention to and what practices they use to interpret the data are also needed to determine what types of trainings, awareness and capacity building are needed to support a transition to high temporal resolution data.

The research will be conducted between 2025 and 2027 and will encompass multiple stages.

• Stage 1: Winter – Spring 2025. The first stage will involve in-depth interviews with members of the general public (irrespective of their prior knowledge of water quality monitoring) and with local government and state agency employees who use water quality monitoring data as part of their work.  During interviews, participants will be asked to look at data collected at differing time intervals and to share their perspectives regarding how to interpret that data. For more information, and if you are interested in participating, please see this link or contact watermonitoringstudy@umass.edu.

• Stage 2: Fall 2025.  This second stage will involve focus groups during which participants collectively discuss options for summarizing and visualizing high temporal resolution monitoring data. Here participants will provide their perspectives regarding ease of comprehension, useability and usefulness of information, and methods for using the data to draw conclusions.

This research is based upon work supported in part by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 2317235 Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this paper are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. For questions about this research please contact amilman ‘at’ eco.umass.edu.