Otago Regional Council's use of a new online portal to improve management of water meter and water quality data.

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Over the last three years Otago Regional Council has transformed the way we manage water meter data and water quality sampling results submitted under the conditions of resource consents.

This transformation has involved the introduction of an online portal, which can be accessed by staff in the field. The portal contains maps which enable proactive management of water take consents. ORC uses these maps to address non-compliance and data issues as they happen rather than waiting for an annual data review.

The portal also contains more than more than 1,200 unique dashboards built to provide a standard view of consents. These dashboards bring together all the monitoring data and limits relating to a resource consent. This enables staff to quickly assess compliance when new data is received. The dashboards also provide a standard view of resource consents, avoiding situations where different staff have different interpretations of the same conditions.

The results of this transformation are that ORC have been able improve both the quality of our monitoring and increase the volume of monitoring being undertaken. As an example in the 2022/23 financial year we increased the number of water take consents reviewed by 50% without increasing staff numbers.

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