Water information
reporting (WIR) system
Frequently asked
questions
Looking after all our water needs
Department of Water
November 2013
Department of Water
168 St Georges Terrace
Perth Western Australia 6000
Telephone
+61 8 6364 7600
Facsimile
+61 8 6364 7601
National Relay Service 13 36 77
www.water.wa.gov.au
© Government of Western Australia
November 2013
This work is copyright. You may download, display, print and reproduce
this material in unaltered form only (retaining this notice) for your personal, non-commercial use or use
within your organisation. Apart from any use as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, all other
rights are reserved. Requests and inquiries concerning reproduction and rights should be addressed
to the Department of Water.
Acknowledgements
This project is supported by the state government's Royalties for Regions program.
For more information about this document, contact
Water Information Branch
Phone: (08) 6364 6505
Email: wir@water.wa.gov.au.
Disclaimer
This document has been published by the Department of Water. Any representation, statement,
opinion or advice expressed or implied in this publication is made in good faith and on the basis that
the Department of Water and its employees are not liable for any damage or loss whatsoever which
may occur as a result of action taken or not taken, as the case may be in respect of any
representation, statement, opinion or advice referred to herein. Professional advice should be
obtained before applying the information contained in this document to particular circumstances.
This publication is available at our website <www.water.wa.gov.au> or for those with special needs it
can be made available in alternative formats such as audio, large print, or Braille.
Frequ ently asked questions
WIR
Contents
Frequently asked questions..............................................................................................1
1 How current is the data in W IR? ..................................................................................1
2 Is there a cost? .............................................................................................................1
3 Are there any known system issues? ..........................................................................1
4 How long will it take for my data to arrive? .................................................................3
5 What browsers are compatible? ..................................................................................3
6 When can I use W IR? ..................................................................................................3
7 Can I apply advanced site filtering based on criteria such as particular variables or
numbers of measurements? ........................................................................................3
8 Can I filter sites based on aquifer? ..............................................................................3
9 What keywords can be used and how are they applied?...........................................4
10 How do I remove individual sites from the site cart? ..................................................4
11 Can I select and remove several sites from the site cart at one time?......................4
12 Can I save my site cart?...............................................................................................4
13 Why does print preview not show just selected sites and identifiers?.......................5
14 Can I customise the site names and identifiers that are displayed for sites, and the
zoom levels at which they appear? .............................................................................5
15 Can I obtain data by project? .......................................................................................5
16 Can WIR store my contact details so I don’t have to provide them each time?........5
17 Can I select and run more than one report at a time?................................................5
18 Can I obtain water level plots (hydrographs) through W IR? ......................................6
19 Can I obtain point data for the plots (hydrographs) displayed under pre-computed
reports? .........................................................................................................................7
20 Can I obtain bore licensing information from WIR? ....................................................8
21 How often are the WIR reference codes and other metadata updated? ...................8
22 Why have I not received an email confirming that my request has been submitted?8
23 I have received the confirmation email but why have I not received the following
email with the data?......................................................................................................8
24 If my report just contains headers but no data, does it indicate that the report has
failed? ............................................................................................................................9
25 Why are numbers formatted as text in data spreadsheets? ......................................9
26 Can I obtain all of the telemetered data for a site?.....................................................9
Contact information .........................................................................................................10
Department of Water
iii
Frequ ently asked questions
WIR
Frequently asked questions
1
Ho w c u r r e n t i s t h e da t a i n WI R ?
This depends on the type of data. The WIR warehouses are refreshed on a nightly
basis.
•
For discrete (WIN) data, this means that the data will be at least one day old; that
is, it was entered into WIN on the previous day. This does not mean that it was
collected on the previous day, because there is usually a lag of days or weeks
between the time data is collected and the time it is captured into the database.
•
For time-series data loaded into WIR:
− Archive data will be available the day after it is archived. Again, this
does not mean the data itself relates to the previous day. Data may be
weeks or months old before it can be verified and archived.
− Telemetry data is not currently loaded into WIR.
•
For time-series data that is loaded to the pre-computed report folders:
− Archive data is available the day after it is archived, the same as for
WIR data.
− Telemetry data is loaded at least hourly (only the last six days of data).
This consists of plots and CSV files.
2
I s t h e r e a c o st ?
No, data is provided as a free service to promote community engagement in water
management.
3
A r e t h e r e a n y kn o w n sy st e m i ssu e s?
The following intermittent issues have been identified and will be addressed in a
future release:
•
When “checking out” the Site cart to order reports, sometimes the system
cannot progress past the Contact details screen (the Continue button can be
clicked but the Request details screen does not open), i.e.:
Department of Water
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Frequ ently asked questions
•
WIR
To address this, Refresh the browser (F5 or View | Refresh). You may have
to repeat the action. You will then be able to proceed to the Request Details
screen.
If the system has been idle for an extended period (e.g. overnight), the
following may occur on wakeup:
− If a keyword filter is applied, the map may not redraw properly after
zooming in, and site symbols will look magnified and pixelated.
Solution is to close and reopen the browser.
− The confirmation email for the first report submitted may not be sent
out, but the screen notification will be displayed and the data will still
be delivered.
•
•
Zoom to all filtered sites has been noted to occasionally zoom in too far so not
all sites are visible on the screen. Use the mouse wheel to zoom out a little to
ensure all sites are in view.
If you try to run a report for a site that has no data available, you may receive
a misleading error message:
It simply means that no data was found for the site, for that report.
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Department of Water
Frequ ently asked questions
4
WIR
Ho w l o n g w i l l i t t a ke fo r m y da t a t o a r r i v e?
The time taken for data delivery will vary from minutes to hours, depending on the
size of your request and the number of requests already in the queue (requests are
processed automatically on a first-come-first-served basis). If your data does not
arrive within one working day, please contact the department for further advice and
assistance:
Phone: (08) 6364 6505
Email: wir@water.wa.gov.au
In due course you will receive your data or notification about its delivery
5
Wh a t br o w se rs a r e c o m pa t ibl e?
Browser issues: WIR is designed to run on Internet Explorer 6 to 9. Other browsers
may have compatibility issues and may not function as expected.
Known issues include:
•
Firefox: when zooming to filtered sites, site symbols may not refresh properly
and remain large and pixelated
•
Safari: opens links in new windows instead of tabs.
6
Wh e n c a n I u se WI R ?
Hours of availability: Business hours Monday to Friday, but is also generally
available after hours and on weekends. WIR is down for maintenance between
3:00am to 6:00 am AWST each morning
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C a n I a ppl y a dv a nc ed si t e fi l t e r i n g ba se d o n
c r i t e r ia su c h a s pa r t i c u lar v a ri able s o r n u m be r s
o f m e a su r eme nt s?
No, only elementary filtering was able to be provided for this version of WIR.
Advanced filtering is planned for a future release. You are welcome to provide
feedback on the types of filtering you need and we will investigate their feasibility.
8
C a n I fi l t e r si t e s ba se d o n a qu i fe r ?
Not directly in this version of WIR. However, you can download the
full_site_listing.xlsx file from the WIR Help and References page and filter on the
‘Aquifers (DOW)’ or ‘Aquifers (As reported)’ columns to create a site list that can then
be loaded into the Site Cart (refer to User Guide for details). Note that:
•
the ‘Aquifers (DOW)’ column contains official Department of Water aquifers
and holds most of the aquifer information
Department of Water
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Frequ ently asked questions
WIR
•
the ‘Aquifers (As reported)’ column contains aquifer names as reported in
third-party hydrogeological reports or bore licencing forms and may not relate
to official department aquifers
•
screened aquifers have not been identified for all bores:
− 45% of department bores have aquifers details
− 2% of non-department bores have aquifer details
9 Wh a t ke y w o r ds c a n be u se d a n d h o w a r e t h e y
a ppl i e d?
A complete listing of WIR sites is available from the WIR Help and References page
(full_site_listing.xlsx), and this will enable you to see the contents of fields that are
used for filtering, and therefore the keywords that can be used. The actual fields
searched include the following (all fields are searched, for any occurrence of the
keyword within the field):
WIN Site Id; Default Site Reference; Default Site Context Name; Default Site
Name; Other Site References; Other Site Names; River Basin; Site Purpose
Current; Infrastructure Status Current; Projects; Catchment; Estuary; Local
Landmark Name; Local Govt Authority; Locality; BOM Rainfall District;
Groundwater Province; Groundwater Area; Groundwater Subarea; Surfacewater
Area; Surfacewater Subarea; 1:250;000 Map Index.
10 Ho w do I r e m o v e i n di v i du al si t e s fr o m t h e si t e
cart?
Click the site you would like to remove from the cart by selecting it in the site cart.
The site’s identifier popup window should appear on the map window. Click the
“remove from cart” link within the window and then close it. Repeat these steps to
continue removing individual sites from the cart.
11 C a n I se l e c t a n d r e m o v e se v e r al si t e s fr o m t h e
si t e c a r t a t o n e t i m e ?
No, not in this release of WIR. It will be addressed in a future release.
12 C a n I sa v e m y si t e c a r t ?
Your current site cart will be automatically saved as cookies in your browser (if they
are enabled) and will be reloaded the next time you use WIR. However, this will be
lost if you delete your browsing history. There is no direct functionality to save the
cart and reload the cart. However, you can run a report (such as site details) and
save the CSV list of sites that is provided with the report for reloading into the cart at
another time (by using the import cart function).
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Department of Water
Frequ ently asked questions
WIR
13 Wh y do e s pr i n t pr e v ie w n o t sh o w ju st se l e c t e d
si t e s a n d i de n t i fie rs?
The print preview functionality that was able to be implemented in WIR was
constrained by limitations with current mapping software. A future upgrade of the
software will allow a richer print previewing service to be built. In the interim, it may
be more useful to take screen snaps of the WIR map interface and use them for
printing.
14 C a n I c u st o m ise t h e si t e n a m e s a n d i de n t i fie rs
t h a t a r e di spl a y ed fo r si t e s, a n d t h e z o o m l e v e ls a t
w h i c h t h e y a ppe a r ?
No. These settings are fixed within the application and cannot be changed by users.
Only the default site references are displayed. They appear at Zoom 13. The zoom
level cannot be changed, and site references cannot be turned on or off at will.
15 C a n I o bt a i n da t a by pr o je c t ?
Not directly in this version of WIR. However, you can do so indirectly by using the
project code as a site filter keyword (e.g. “SG-E-SWANEST”), and adding the
resultant sites to your site cart. Then run your report and use Excel filtering on the
Project Code column to exclude any samples not collected for the project. A list of
projects and their codes and descriptions is available from the WIR Help and
References page.
A future release of WIR will include data extraction by Project.
16 C a n WI R st o r e m y c o n t a c t de t a i l s so I do n ’t h a v e
t o pr o v ide t h e m e a c h t i m e ?
No. This feature was not able to be provided for this release. It will be addressed in a
future release.
17 C a n I se l e c t a n d r u n m o r e t h a n o n e r e po r t a t a
time?
No. Only one report can be run at a time. However, when the dialog appears advising
that your request has been submitted, you can click cancel to return to the request
details screen and submit another report (for the same set of sites).
Department of Water
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Frequ ently asked questions
WIR
18 C a n I o bt a i n w a t e r l e v e l pl o t s (h y dr o graph s)
t h r o u gh WI R ?
Yes, through the pre-computed report store. This is available in two ways:
1 As a link in the site identifier popup window of an individual site, e.g.
2 As the ‘package of pre-computed reports for selected sites(s)’ available from
the request details screen
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Department of Water
Frequ ently asked questions
WIR
19 C a n I o bt a i n po i n t da t a fo r t h e pl o t s
(h y dr o gr aph s) di spl a ye d u n de r pr e -c o mpu te d r e po r t s?
Yes, by running a data report.
Example using the pre-computed plots for site 70118112:
1 Add the site to the cart (e.g. 70118112) and submit a data request.
2 Request report “Water Level / Flow for Site(s) cross-tabulated (or flat file)”
3 A report “WaterLevelsForSite” will be sent to you by the system.
1 This report will contain all the water level data for the site. For the example
above the file will include:
a) Continuous logger recorded data:
- Groundwater Level (AHD) – daily max
Department of Water
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Frequ ently asked questions
WIR
- Groundwater Level (AHD) – daily mean (as displayed in the
plot)
- Groundwater Level (AHD) – daily min
b) Discrete point data:
- Water Level (AHD)
- Water Level (GL)
- Static Water Level
20 C a n I o bt a i n bo r e l i c e n sin g i n fo r mat ion fr o m WI R ?
No, WIR does not hold licensing information. Please refer to the Water register on
the Department of Water website for this information.
21 Ho w o ft e n a r e t h e WI R r e fe r e n ce c o de s a n d o t h e r
m e t a dat a u pda t e d?
Reference codes, variables and analysis methods are updated on a frequent basis.
Listings are re-published daily, and you are encouraged to download the latest
versions when referring to them. Explanatory notes and metadata change
infrequently and are only re-published when changes occur. You are welcome to
download them at any time.
22 Wh y h a v e I n o t r e c e iv e d a n e m a i l c o n fi r mi ng t h a t
m y r e qu e st h a s be e n su bm i t t ed?
There may be several reasons why you have not received a confirmation email, for
example:
•
you mistyped your email address during the checkout process
•
the department may be experiencing technical issues with email delivery.
Note that if you have not provided sufficient or correct contact details we may not be
able to let you know that a problem has occurred.
Please contact one of our water information officers for further advice (refer to
Contact Information.)
23 I h a v e r e c e i v ed t h e c o n fi r m ati on e m a i l bu t w h y
h a v e I n o t r e c e i v e d t h e fo l l o w i ng e m a i l w i t h t h e
da t a ?
The requests work in a queue system that operates on a “first come, first served”
basis. Therefore all other requests received prior to yours will be served first and
depending on the size of these requests it could mean a short or a long waiting
8
Department of Water
Frequ ently asked questions
WIR
period before you receive your data. If your data has not arrived by the following
working day, please contact one of our water information officers for assistance.
It could also be the email has arrived but been automatically moved to junk emails.
Please check that folder.
Another possibility is that your service provider or organisation has a limit on the size
of emails that can be received. WIR data sent by email has a maximum size of
10MB. If this exceeds your allowable limit, contact one of our water information
officers and we will place the data on our FTP server for you to download (refer to
Contact Information.)
24 I f m y r e po r t ju st c o n t a i ns h e a de r s bu t n o da t a ,
do e s i t i n di c at e t h a t t h e r e po r t h a s fa i l e d?
An empty report generally indicates that there is no data for the site(s) selected, or
the date range, or the specific type of report you have requested. Check the Data
Availability Summaries for the site(s).
25 Wh y a r e n u m be r s fo r m a tt ed a s t e xt i n da t a
spr e a dsh ee ts?
This occurs because results from measurements and observations may be
expressed in one of four data types: numbers, ranges, dates and text (codes/names).
Results may also be qualified by '<', ‘>' and '~' symbols. By necessity then, they must
all be extracted as text, as it is the one common format that will accommodate all
data types. Unfortunately this makes mathematical operations difficult. Instructions
for converting textual numeric values back into true numbers are available from the
WIR User guide and the Explanatory notes.
26 C a n I o bt a i n a l l o f t h e t e l e m e t er ed da t a fo r a
si t e ?
No. Telemetered data is unverified. The last six days of telemetry data is provided as
a general-interest community service only, to indicate recent site conditions.
Department of Water
9
Frequ ently asked questions
WIR
Contact information
Our water information officers can be contacted during office hours,
Monday to Friday 8:30 am to 5:00 pm:
Phone: (08) 6364 6505
Email: wir@water.wa.gov.au
Alternatively, contact Reception:
The Atrium, Level 6
168 St Georges Terrace, PERTH WA 6000
PO Box K822, PERTH WA 6842
Phone: (08) 6364 7600
Fax: 6364 7601
Email: Atrium.Reception@water.wa.gov.au
10
Department of Water