Micro SaaS application that digitizes reporting ground water consumption to Colorado Department of Water Resources.
- I built a "micro" SaaS web platform for the Colorado Department of Water Resources (CODWR) using a modified MERN stack:
- Database: FaunaDB
- Frontend and API: NextJS
- Authentication: Auth0
- Hosting: Vercel
- CODWR requires well owners to report monthly water consumption. The data is physically read from the well and reported on a pdf document delivered by email.
- The Colorado Water Export application aims to solve this problem. A well owner logs onto the platform and enters water consumption data.
- The REST API backend performs necessary calculations, validation, and instrument calibration checks.
- At the end of the year the user can export this data directly into the form required by CODWR.
- Future plans include exposing the REST API to 3rd party platforms. One use case is to allow automated reporting from IoT enabled flow instruments installed directly on the well.
I created a SaaS platform to digitize water consumption reporting to CODWR.
I was hired by Lost Creek, a subsidiary water district and together we came up with a solution and I got to work building. The plan was to make a useable product that solved the reporting problems for that district, and then make it available to other districts and eventually pitch it to the CODWR as the system of record for well consumption data across the state.
Colorado is a high desert and ground water is a scarce resource across the state. State law requires all well owners pumping ground water for non agricultural use (e.g. municipal) must report the amount of water consumed monthly.
In order to report consumption a water engineer must travel to the location of the well each month and record the reading on a pdf. At the end of the year he scans and emails the pdf to CODWR who prints and stores the hardcopy record.
This process is problematic and time consuming. The water engineer doing the reporting must visit each well each month to physically read the flow meter. CODWR and its subsidiary water districts have the problem of manually collecting, validating, storing and retrieving these reports.
Coloradowaterexport.com is a SaaS platform that provides users with a structured process for collecting, validating, storing and retrieving water consumption data.
Upon logging in, the user is presented with a summary of assigned wells.
Clicking on a well permit brings the user to the details of that well. The user can navigate between years and see which years contain data. Entering water flow data triggers all other cell calculations.
As data is inserted, both front-end and back-end validation is performed. This helps guide the user in the use of the tool and helps to maintain data quality.
When all entries have been made for the year, the user can export the data into the forms required by CODWR. All data is transposed to the form automatically and the form is digitally signed.
Access to data is controlled through the platform by users with "Administrator" permissions. Users search and request access to specific wells.
Access to read/write consumption data for those wells is then granted by an administrator.
