Enhanced and Alternative Methods of Database Access

The value of the data on river basin Websites is enhanced by improving Internet access. When information is available over high-speed, full-time connections, water managers make much greater use of the Websites. Because these three Utah projects are in rural areas, access to broadband Internet service is limited. It was determined that connecting a few of the key water managers' homes to the Internet full time would be an important step in the project's success. This was achieved by using low-cost, license-free spread spectrum radio links. The water managers with "full-time" connections access their Website frequently throughout the day, sometimes more than 20 times.

One planned enhancement to the real-time data access system is the addition of telephone touch-tone data retrieval, since water managers often find themselves in need of access to the information while in the field. StoneFly is in the process of adding equipment which will enable anyone to call in on a telephone and retrieve specific real-time data by entering the proper number on a telephone keypad. This will allow cell phone access to the system.

A second alternative method of remote real-time data access is the Web-enabled cell phone and/or wireless personal digital assistant (PDA). These phones and PDAs allow the users to view small renditions of Web pages. At the moment, the availability of Web service on rural cellular systems is limited. In the future, however, this service will be more wide spread so there are plans to create alternative versions of data display pages which would be optimized for cellular phone and PDA Web browsers.