Alachua County Information and Technology Services (ITS) Department was awarded a 2020 Achievement Award for its Water Quality Field Testing App. The App was developed to replace several paper-based data collection tasks as well as to automate manual reporting tasks required to maintain one of our community’s most valuable resources: clean, safe water. The application allows personnel from the County’s Environmental Protection Department to collect surface water quality data from anywhere within the County as well as easily track when and where samples need to be collected from within the field and prepare the sample and control data for laboratory analysis.
It improved the administrative capacity of the Environmental Protection Department, allowing their employees to more quickly and completely collect and report on critical data while also serving the community by making the protection of our ground water a more efficient and effective endeavor.
“This program was one of the most ambitious ones we have undertaken in recent years,” said Alachua County ITS Web Services Supervisor Chris Nielsen. “It involved the complete digitization of a complex paper process using technologies that are typically only employed by software giants like Google. Despite the challenges, we could not have been happier with the initial launch. Improvements and successes include reduced use of paper, increased data integrity, and integrated and automated reporting.”
