Kevin Colburn, American Whitewater: The National Whitewater Inventory One of the most important components of river safety is information that helps people make good decisions. American Whitewater’s National Whitewater Inventory has been collecting and sharing crowd-sourced river information for roughly two decades and is currently being redesigned. The Inventory contains flow information, rapid descriptions, alerts, accident reports, photos, and other information that helps the public make smart decisions about where and when to paddle. In this session, we'll share how we are working to enhance the quality, mobility, and use of this online resource that features over 5,000 river reaches and is utilized by almost 1 million people annually.

1. American Whitewater’s
National Whitewater Inventory
By: Kevin Colburn
Better Information For Safer Paddling

2. American Whitewater
To conserve and restore America’s
whitewater resources and to enhance
opportunities to enjoy them safely

3. AUTUMN, 1969

4. National Whitewater Inventory
• Began in the 1980’s
• > 5,760 river reaches in all 50 states
• > 44,000 stream gages
• > 33,000 photographs
• > 1,600 accidents
• Almost 1 million unique annual visitors

5. National Whitewater Inventory
Planning a River Trip

6. Time + Distance

7. How Difficult Is
It?

8. Is It Relatively Safe?

9. Or Ripe With Objective Hazards?

10. What is the Level?

11. Is the Level Right For Me?

12. Who Else is Going?

13. Has the River Changed?

14. National Whitewater Inventory
Hazards to Mitigate

15. 26% Fatalities Associated with Cold Water

16. 25% Fatalities Associated with Flush Drowning

17. 23% Fatalities Associated with High Water

18. 16% Fatalities Associated with Strainers

19. 16% Fatalities Associated with No PFD

20. 13% Fatalities Associated with Undercuts / Sieves

21. Top 10 Accident Factors

22. Most Accidents Since 1975

23. National Whitewater Inventory
The Website

27. Other Activities

28. Time + Distance

30. Recent Rainfall

31. Recent Rainfall

32. Recent Rainfall

34. Recent Rainfall

36. Recent Rainfall

37. National Whitewater Inventory
Phase 2

38. Find a River

39. Precipitation

41. National Whitewater Inventory
Questions?

42. National Whitewater Inventory
Technical Specifications
DB: Postgresql 10
Language: PHP 7.1
Framework: Laravel 5.5
JS: DOJO 1.12
OS: CentOS 7.3