DataStream is a powerful online platform for sharing information about freshwater health.
DataStream is open access and built with communities, policy-makers and researchers in mind. Our mission is to promote knowledge sharing and advance collaborative water stewardship.
Visit the new DataStream.org website.
Across Canada, communities and researchers are gathering important information about local watersheds – but too often data is managed in ways that makes collaboration difficult and expensive. DataStream provides a digital backbone for diverse monitoring groups to access, visualize, and download full water quality datasets.
By bringing water data together in one place, DataStream provides a clearer picture of freshwater health and a stronger foundation for making informed decisions.
DataStream was developed by The Gordon Foundation and is carried out in collaboration with regional monitoring networks.
Mackenzie DataStream
Mackenzie DataStream promotes knowledge sharing and collaborative decision making throughout the Mackenzie Basin – including hundreds of monitoring sites in British Columbia, Alberta, the Northwest Territories and the Yukon. This interactive website launched in 2016 with official events in Fort Smith and on Parliament Hill. It was built in partnership with communities and the Government of the Northwest Territories, DataStream’s founding partner.
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Atlantic Datastream
Explore data collected by over 30 monitoring groups in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador. Atlantic DataStream launched in 2018 and helps you access, visualize and download full water quality datasets across the Atlantic provinces. It was built in partnership with the Atlantic Water Network.
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Lake Winnipeg Datastream
Launched in 2019 in collaboration with the Lake Winnipeg Foundation.
The Lake Winnipeg Basin is one of North America’s largest – stretching from central Alberta to northwestern Ontario. Lake Winnipeg DataStream provides an open-access home for freshwater data collected across this expansive basin.
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Great Lakes DataStream
Great Lakes DataStream was released in fall 2021, covering the Great Lakes and Saint Lawrence Basin.
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Pacific DataStream
Pacific DataStream was released in March 2024, covering British Columbia and the Yukon.
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Mackenzie DataStream
Mackenzie DataStream promotes knowledge sharing and collaborative decision making throughout the Mackenzie Basin – including hundreds of monitoring sites in British Columbia, Alberta, the Northwest Territories and the Yukon. This interactive website launched in 2016 with official events in Fort Smith and on Parliament Hill. It was built in partnership with communities and the Government of the Northwest Territories, DataStream’s founding partner.
Visit Site
Atlantic Datastream
Explore data collected by over 30 monitoring groups in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador. Atlantic DataStream launched in 2018 and helps you access, visualize and download full water quality datasets across the Atlantic provinces. It was built in partnership with the Atlantic Water Network.
Visit Site
Lake Winnipeg Datastream
Launched in 2019 in collaboration with the Lake Winnipeg Foundation.
The Lake Winnipeg Basin is one of North America’s largest – stretching from central Alberta to northwestern Ontario. Lake Winnipeg DataStream provides an open-access home for freshwater data collected across this expansive basin.
Visit Site
Great Lakes DataStream
Great Lakes DataStream was released in fall 2021, covering the Great Lakes and Saint Lawrence Basin.
visit site
Pacific DataStream
Pacific DataStream was released in March 2024, covering British Columbia and the Yukon.
visit siteBetter Data Means Better Decisions
Communities can drive the data-to-policy cycle. DataStream is designed to support this.
DataStream provides a place to store, share, and compare water monitoring data across watersheds.
Open data advances scientific knowledge, supports collaboration, and fuels innovation.
Knowledge can be translated into action to protect the health of watersheds on which we all depend.
Communities are connected to their waters and best-placed to see changes as they happen.
DataStream provides a place to store, share, and compare water monitoring data across watersheds.
Open data advances scientific knowledge, supports collaboration, and fuels innovation.
Knowledge can be translated into action to protect the health of watersheds on which we all depend.
Communities are connected to their waters and best-placed to see changes as they happen.
What People Are Saying
Mackenzie DataStream will allow this data to be used in our community as well as by our neighbours downstream in Yukon, Alberta and the Northwest Territories”
We believe that Mackenzie DataStream will grow and inform the co-operative management of the Mackenzie Basin as a whole.”
Atlantic DataStream is the connecting thread for water quality management in Atlantic Canada. We’ve been working towards something like this for some time without realizing it. Now, with Atlantic DataStream we’re seeing data sharing and accessibility at a scale that has never existed beforehand in our region"
Mackenzie DataStream will allow this data to be used in our community as well as by our neighbours downstream in Yukon, Alberta and the Northwest Territories”
We believe that Mackenzie DataStream will grow and inform the co-operative management of the Mackenzie Basin as a whole.”
Atlantic DataStream is the connecting thread for water quality management in Atlantic Canada. We’ve been working towards something like this for some time without realizing it. Now, with Atlantic DataStream we’re seeing data sharing and accessibility at a scale that has never existed beforehand in our region"
Regional Partners
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Atlantic Water Network
Atlantic Water Network (AWN) is Atlantic Canada’s hub for community-based water monitoring. AWN’s vision is that Atlantic rivers, lakes and wetlands are healthy and stewarded by local communities in the long term.
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Government of the Northwest Territories
DataStream was first developed in the Mackenzie River Basin through a collaboration between the Gordon Foundation and the Government of the Northwest Territories, DataStream’s founding partners.
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Lake Winnipeg Foundation
The Lake Winnipeg Foundation (LWF) advocates for change and co-ordinates action to improve the health of Lake Winnipeg, the 10th largest freshwater lake in the world.
Supporters
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Environment and Climate Change Canada
Generous support from ECCC has enabled strategic DataStream growth both regionally and nationally. Financial and in-kind investments have made the platform more effective for uploading, visualizing and downloading datasets collected in all three hub regions.
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RBC Tech for Nature
DataStream is supported by RBC Tech for Nature to accelerate tech-based solutions that help preserve the world’s greatest wealth: our natural ecosystem. RBC works with partners to leverage technology and innovation capabilities to work to solve pressing environmental challenges.
Getting Started
DataStream is open-access – meaning it’s free for anyone to use. If you are involved in water monitoring in any of our existing basins and are interested in expanding the audience for your data and the impact of your program, we want to work with you.
Please contact us and we can set you up with a data contributor account. You can reach Lindsay Day, DataStream Program Manager at lindsay@datastream.org.
Related Resources
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Elevating Community-Based Water Monitoring in Canada
Author(s): Community-Based Water Monitoring Roundtable Participants
January 10, 2021
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Transcending Boundaries
Author(s): The Forum for Leadership on Water
Publisher(s): The Gordon Foundation
November 16, 2016
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Canada’s Great Basin: Presumed Abundance and Revealed Neglect in the Mackenzie Watershed
Publisher(s): The Gordon Foundation
November 21, 2011