Water Quality Assessment, Analysis and Interpretation

The Water Quality Assessment, Analysis and Interpretation online course is a signature course delivered by the Canadian Rivers Institute’s Training and Professional Development programme. This course advances participants’ abilities to design water quality research and monitoring programs and analyze water quality conditions and trends. 

Course Overview

This online course was developed to introduce tools for water quality data visualization and statistical analysis (using R), provide exercises to gain experience with real data to analyse for effects, trends, etc., introduce the use of DataStream to submit and access open-source water quality data, and provide an overview of the design considerations for water quality monitoring programmes. 

Topics Covered Include:

• Summary statistics and graphs

• Data distributions and transformations

• Two-sample tests

• Analysis of Variance (ANOVA)

• Regression analysis

• Correlation

• Trend analysis and Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA)

• Principal Component Analysis (PCA)

• Special topic: DataStream

Course Objectives

• Introduce tools for water quality data visualization and analysis (R and R Studio; open source statistical software)

• Run through hands-on activities with real data to analyse for effects, trends, etc.

• Provide a foundational understanding of statistical analysis as it applies to water quality data

Learning Outcomes

• Formulate key questions and hypotheses

• Determine the best analytical method for answering the question

• Determine the best graphical method for presenting the data

• Analyse and present the data through the use of R

• Learn how to present figures and statistical results in reports

Details

In this course, our focus will be on different ways to analyze water quality data with a focus on physical and chemical measures. The goal is to provide the statistical tools that can be used to support assessments of water quality. In other words, the goal is to provide the tools that will help you work with the data that you collect and draw some conclusions based on the data.

The content was originally developed in partnership with the Saskatchewan Research Council (Dr. Andrew Harwood), and Dr. Monique Dubé (former CRI Science Director), and it was redeveloped in 2019 with a significant amount of new content and exercises added by Dr. Jen Lento (UNB/CRI Research Scientist), Brianna Levenstein (UNB/CRI Research Technician), Zoe O’Malley (UNB/CRI Research Technician), and Dr. Michelle Gray (UNB/CRI Assistant Professor). In 2024, the course is once again being updated and revitalized by Dr. Jen Lento and Dr. Wendy Monk (CRI Fellow) to improve the user experience and further develop the R Tutorials. It is offered as a self-paced online course in an online learning management system called D2L. Participants will work through a series of modules that include lessons and accompanying hands-on tutorials in R. Time to complete the course will differ for each person.

The Canadian Rivers Institute is using the services of the University of New Brunswick’s Faculty of Forestry and Environmental Management (ForEM) and the College of Extended Learning to increase the quality and efficiency of program registration and delivery of this CRI Training and Professional Development program's signature course. ForEM is responsible for the registration process, client relations, and the delivery of courses. For enquiries specific to CRI’s signature courses please email unbcricourses@unb.ca