Open data plan

This plan was adopted by the Washington State Department of Ecology following the Open Data Policy established by the Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO).


As of October 1, 2020

Commitments

Ecology commits to the following five general priorities with specific actions and measures:

1. Incorporate public access when acquiring, redesigning, or rebuilding information systems.

Measure: Number of Unique Visitors per month for 2019 to Ecology’s website home page.

Results:

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

58,227

44,887

52,095

56,271

55,506

53,761

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

55,422

52,756

45,921

55,810

48,944

48,658

2. Coordinate technology planning across agency boundaries to facilitate electronic access to state data. 

Measure: Number of times information was shared between Ecology and The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The information sharing can occur by EPA pulling data from Ecology, Ecology pushing data to EPA, or residents accessing EPA data through Ecology’s website.

Results:

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

158

154

160

155

174

269

602

162

159

568

151

156

3. Develop processes to determine which information the public most wants and needs. 

Ecology’s web team will track the number of views of the agency’s primary data portal page and significant data pathway pages, and share this with appropriate data agency stewards, including but not limited to: 

  • EIM homepage
  • Facility/Site Database homepage
  • Water Quality Permit Data homepage
  • GIS homepage

Measure: Monthly unique visitors on the Research and Data page and provide results and report annually. 

Results:

The number of page views per month in 2019

EIM Search Results:

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

24,613

15,212

19,271

16,173

15,969

14,358

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

12,210

15,849

11,519

13,581

11,922

12,791

Facility/Site Search Results:

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

16,665

16,264

17,180

22,189

16,174

15,278

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

17,067

16,991

16,013

16,164

13,488

16,269

Water Resources Search Results:

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

9,033

6,229

7,750

9,971

15,057

12,799

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

18,086

21,375

12,397

11,344

12,443

18,197

Water Quality Permit Home Results:

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

583

437

630

725

677

603

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

754

757

468

598

434

417

GIS Home Results:

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

69

69

61

91

88

116

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

70

58

62

47

50

96

Databases Portal Results:

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

1,682

1,312

1,457

1,462

1,607

1,945

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

1,470

1,339

1,073

985

1,127

1,174

4. Develop and employ methods to readily protect non-disclosable data.

Measure: Number of staff completing this training each year

Results:

  • FY2020 (July 1, 2019-June 30, 2020):  262 Ecology staff completed Records and Information Management and Public Disclosure training.
  • FY2021 (July 1, 2020-present):  Ecology is moving to a virtual delivery of this training.  Virtual training will be offered every Wednesday, effective September 30th, 2020.

5. Develop and employ technical mechanisms for posting open data. 

  • Ecology will continue improving automated data publication to data.wa.gov. Ecology will also streamline manual data publication processes, where possible.