Non-profit organization uses KaleidaGraph to provide vital information to policy makers in northwestern Montana
KaleidaGraph is the ideal application because of its large datasheet (many data sets have more than 32,000 rows), its clean and elegant output, its powerful curve fit and statistical functions, and its unexcelled ease of use.
Preserving Montana’s Crown Jewel Through Data
Flathead Lake in northwestern Montana is the largest natural freshwater lake in the contiguous western United States and remains one of the cleanest populated bodies of water in the world. However, decades of watershed regulation—beginning with the construction of Kerr Dam in 1938—along with urban growth, failing septic systems, and agricultural run-off have threatened its water quality.
For over 50 years, the Flathead Lakers, a community-driven non-profit organization, has worked alongside state, federal, and local agencies to safeguard the lake and its surrounding watershed.
When a controversial 1990s proposal to alter lake levels highlighted a widespread lack of public understanding around the lake’s hydrology, the Lakers recognized an urgent need for clear, objective data. To educate the public and inform sound policy, they turned to KaleidaGraph.
Transforming Complex Hydrology into Accessible Visuals
Analyzing Flathead Lake’s hydrology requires processing massive datasets from the United States Geological Survey (USGS). Technical editor James Conner manages this workflow by cleaning USGS streamflow and elevation data, staging it in FileMaker Pro, and loading it into KaleidaGraph for in-depth statistical analysis and plotting.
KaleidaGraph plays a vital role at every stage of the analytical process:
Hydrograph Reconstruction: To fill measurement gaps in pre-1928 USGS datasets, Conner leveraged KaleidaGraph’s curve-fitting capabilities to model lake levels against downstream streamflows, deriving the missing historical values.
Multi-Variable Plotting: Line plots illustrate annual surface elevations and inflow/outflow hydrographs over time, while box and scatter plots with error bars capture seasonal and annual variations.
Statistical Verification: Built-in statistical tools allow the team to evaluate minor variance between northern and southern lake gauge readings across datasets containing over 32,000 rows.
Putting Everyone on the Same Page
Today, the resulting graphs and open-access datasets are hosted on the Flathead Lakers website and featured in public presentations. By translating raw numerical data into clean, visual formats, the Lakers provide community members, researchers, and policymakers with a transparent, shared set of facts.
“Making public policy is a lot easier if everyone has ready access to the same set of facts,” says Conner. “Providing all interested parties with objective information on lake levels and related streamflows puts everyone on the same page at the beginning of the debate.”
For more information on the Flathead Lakers see http://www.flatheadlakers.org.
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