A Blind Dive into the Unknown: Water Quality without Metadata

Abstract

The need to monitor urban water quality is increasing due to the ecotoxicological and health risks urban contaminants pose to water resources. Moreover, the list of contaminants of potential concern is increasing, amplifying the challenges posed by the multiple urban water matrices and sites to be analysed by various analytical methods. Without shared efforts towards a common standardization of datasets and metadata, these monitoring activities will result in datasets fragmented in space, time and context. We propose a first draft for standardizing metadata in urban water quality monitoring, initiating a discussion among the urban drainage community to increase the potential for dataset reuse. Also, this standard will contribute to support the efforts of early career researchers, who are often the main actors in data collection. The proposed data format will allow (re)connecting datasets to generate new knowledge, favour reanalysis and bridge the gap between hydroinformatics and cheminformatics.