There has been a need to optimize groundwater monitoring networks to collect better data at lower cost, but available tools were increasingly obsolete due to changes in the Microsoft platform. To address this gap, the project team used the GSI Environmental’s Monitoring and Remediation Optimization System (MAROS) Microsoft Access tool as inspiration for a new toolbox for environmental data analysis and interpretation. The overall objective of this demonstration was to implement MAROS as a free, web-based toolbox for environmental data analysis using the R Shiny platform.

The new MAROS Toolbox was developed as an interactive, cloud-hosted application using the R Shiny software package, which is well suited for processing and displaying geospatial data. R Shiny provides a robust architecture for developing and hosting standalone applications on a web page that can include embedded/interactive charts, tables, user-friendly dashboards, and customizable suites of analytical tools. Re-envisioning MAROS on this platform provided the opportunity to add new features and include a broader range of data management and analytical options, enhanced data visualizations, and an improved user experience. During the planning stages of this project, statistical calculation tools in legacy MAROS 2.2 and 3.0 were prioritized and only high-priority tools were brought forward into the new web-based app.

Overarching design goals for the Toolbox were two-fold: i) to make it easy for users to efficiently access different tools to evaluate site data, and ii) to make it easy for programmers to implement new features and functionality and reduce maintenance effort in the future. Based on feedback from user testing and validation of the Toolbox with more than 11 demonstration site datasets, the Toolbox appears to be an effective replacement of the legacy Access-based versions of MAROS. Significant quality-of-life improvements in the Toolbox should reduce barriers to analytical data interpretation. This should, in turn, promote routine site data reviews and long-term monitoring optimization to streamline groundwater monitoring programs. Because the Toolbox was designed as publicly-available freeware, costs associated with its use are principally labor costs. These costs will likely vary depending on the volume and quality of data available for a given site. A minor amount of data cleanup is expected, but more significant problems or the need to convert data to electronic formats could increase costs substantially. Nevertheless, optimization studies have the potential to identify cost savings of tens of thousands of dollars per year, or more, and improve monitoring effectiveness.
 

The MAROS Toolbox was found to be easy to use based on feedback from novices to experts in the environmental field during user testing. The new MAROS Toolbox includes the most popular features of MAROS and adds new functionality to make it easier to understand and visualize site data. The modular architecture of the app allows for the addition of more tools in the future. Implementation of this tool will provide a free, easy-to-use method for environmental analysis for groundwater monitoring on installations, ultimately improving the cost-effectiveness of site management, directly benefiting the warfighter and installation communities. (Project Completion - 2025)