A Data Warehouse for Water Quality Data Accessibility in the Great Lakes

The Great Lakes are the backbone of the economy of eight inland coastal states (Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin) in the United States of America. This freshwater source provides unique opportunities for industrial development and recreational activities, which in turn depend critically on the quality of the water. Decades of industrial activities have resulted in the release of PFAS (Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances) into these freshwater sources, prompting an immediate threat to their sustained operation due to potential human health concerns and ecotoxicological impacts. Recent monitoring and research studies report that all the Great Lakes have concerning levels of PFAS requiring immediate attention. While extensive research has been conducted on water quality, the availability of data sources is not within the reach of many researchers, planners, developers, legislators and policy makers. This research aims to develop a data warehouse that will provide scientific and non-scientific communities with essential information and data related to the presence of PFAS and their sources and spatiotemporal trends. The data warehouse will serve as a repository of data (such as information on events, PFAS compounds, precipitation, microplastics, transport, time, and location; chemical formula and safety datasheets; datasets; and scientific research articles and reports) and fact and dimension tables that will store pertinent PFAS data for water research communities. With this data stored in one application, community members will be able to investigate and recommend better solutions to the challenges related to PFAS presence and remediation in the Great Lakes Basin. This research and the data warehouse development steps will also address the knowledge and data gaps that are not typically addressed by other modeling approaches.