Central Wasatch Commission Environmental Dashboard


Environmental Dashboard Elements


The following icons represent the five elements included in the Environmental Dashboard. The five elements are: water, air quality and climate, vegetation communities, wildlife, and geology and soil. By clicking on any of the five element icons, you will have the option to explore each element measures, sub-measures, and element metrics

The Central Wasatch Commission Environmental Dashboard is a tool that provides real-time data specific to five environmental indicators in the Central Wasatch Mountains. Through the Dashboard, user groups ranging from policy makers, technical users, school-age children, and the general public will be able to access information and data specific to the geology and soil, air quality and climate, water, vegetation communities, and wildlife  in the Central Wasatch Mountain Range. The Environmental Dashboard is an online, publicly accessible digital data information system to store all available data collected in the Central Wasatch and provide both spatial and graphical information. It is scientifically based, data rich, and technically credible.

The vision is for the Dashboard to be a data-rich, and technically credible tool that anyone can understand and use. Some may use it to simply access current data for the five Dashboard elements and monitor any changes over time.

Representatives (both professors and researchers) from educational institutions including University of Utah, Utah State University, and Brigham Young University have been included in the development of the Dashboard.

The Environmental Dashboard project aims to complement, align, and support other conservation management planning efforts in the region. The Environmental Dashboard draws upon these current efforts to help establish a common set of indicators and data sets to inform ongoing efforts. In turn, the existing and future conservation management plans will help detail specific implementation strategies that will support and enhance the conditions of the Dashboard elements.

The Environmental Dashboard features spatial data using a Geographic Information System (GIS) linked data information system. Data sources and maintenance will be widely dependent upon the indicator and available data. For some indicators, live connections to existing online data sets or platforms are provided, automating the update and maintenance process. For other indicators, periodic updates to or refreshing of data sets are required for ongoing maintenance of the Dashboard.

During the assessment of current conditions for each element, data sources were inventoried and reviewed for suitability. In the event that adequate data are not available for an element (due to format, coverage, lack of data, or other reason), this has been noted as a data gap. After all data gaps were identified, a list of data gaps that are a priority to fill was developed, including recommended parameters for new data collections or amendments to currently collected data. Since the Dashboard is an ongoing project, these priority data gaps may be addressed and filled over time.

The availability of data for the Dashboard elements determine the frequency of updates.

To the extent the data is available, the full Central Wasatch Commission project area has been included.