Exploiting Public Databases with Marie Bosment
TAUW developed a new interactive environment to help clients access the data from SISE-Eaux, the reference database for tap water quality in France, and subsequently help our clients understand the data results. The agricultural and chemical sectors are required by law to monitor the compounds or molecules that are released into the environment. These substances must not exceed certain thresholds. That means constantly checking the reference database for tap water quality in France. The reference database contains the results of sanitary checks carried out as part of the ARS sanitary control programme. The sheer volume of that data (16 million results per year) makes the data hard to process and understand.
“So we came up with a solution to help our clients access that information faster and better,” says Marie Bosment. Marie is data manager for TAUW France. She is part of an exciting new project that optimises our work and helps our clients. On many projects, TAUW builds a dashboard tool that prepares and presents the information required by our client. Until recently we built a new dashboard for each client. A group of TAUW colleagues from different disciplines got together and came up with an innovative approach. They developed a generic dashboarding tool that can be adapted to each client’s specific needs.
The new tool can be used in different projects and for internal development. Coding experience is not necessary, but subject-matter experience is. And this is where TAUW brings added value. “We know and understand the technical data,” says Marie, “we know how to interpret the data, correct any bias and present that data simply and clearly.”
How does the tool work? “For example, if a chemical producer wants to know how much of a compound it can release into the environment, it can use our dashboard to see if a certain molecule has been quantified in the region. By selecting a type of molecule, a given region and a threshold type (such as potability, detection or environmental criteria) the client gets a simple and quick answer in a clear graph.” The data output is selected by our interpretation of the data, based on our environmental expertise. So we present only the data that is relevant to the client. The client buys the generic tool and adds the molecules that it wants data on. The tool can be customised to each client. This successful innovation is now being prepared for commercial release in 2023.