Ground Truth

The Netherlands is known for its rich water bodies. Farmers play a key role in our water management: by draining and retaining water and protecting its quality. There is a wealth of data available to farmers that can help them with water management. Yet this valuable information remains largely unused. Not because it isn’t available, but because it does not align with the day-to-day practice or the information needs of the intended users. The data is often difficult to find, not presented in a way that is easy to understand, or is not applicable at the moment a farmer needs to make a decision. 

To ensure that opportunities to improve water quality are not missed, Waag Futurelab is working with Tilburg University and the Waterschapshuis to improve the accessibility and usability of open data. Through interviews, co-creation sessions and field observations, we map the decisions farmers make regarding water management, identify which information is relevant to these decisions and which data is still missing. In addition, we are investigating where the opportunities and gaps lie in the currently available datasets and platforms.

The pilot Ground Truth provides insights, design principles and practical guidance to ensure that public information provision is tailored to the needs of improving water quality. It also provides an understanding of how government data can be translated into useful information for specific user groups, such as farmers. This forms a basis for improving digital information provision in the field of water management.