In January 2015, the Alliance for Aquatic Resource Monitoring (ALLARM)
began working with CitSci.org to build an online portal to manage data from
a diverse set of volunteers monitoring streams for impacts from shale gas
development inside and beyond the state of Pennsylvania. One of the most
unique challenges is that the database was developed after the program had
been training volunteers for five years. This presented a number of hurdles
around historic data organization as well as training approaches to ensure
buy-in from existing volunteers. Now, ALLARM and its volunteers have
upgraded their data management system from excel sheets to an online portal
where volunteers upload their data, access a personalized profile to view
historic data and use data analysis tools (ALLARMwater.org). This session
will highlight the participatory approach to the database’s design and
development process, lessons learned working with a database developer,
methods to organize and clean the historic data, and training new and
seasoned volunteers to ensure adoption of the database.