Water Information New Zealand (WINZ) Database

WINZ Future

As explained on the Water Database explanatory page, WINZ is progressively moving from the WINZ 5 desktop version to a fully web-based WINZ 6.

Initial WINZ 6 developments commenced in 2006, but priority for the first years was on meeting the main needs of the Drinking-Water Assistance Programme. The emphasis now (late 2008) has turned to moving WINZ 5 functionality across. However, WINZ 5 has grown very complex in the last 10 years, as it manages the details of the Grading, drinking-water standards and many other requirements. Several years of intensive work are therefore required to bring that same functionality into the web world.

Estimated Timeline for WINZ 6 Development

Functionality	In WINZ 6	Comment
People & Organisations	2006	First release with TAP prototype in Dec 2006
TAP	2007
CAP	2008	Some aspects operational from October 2007
Annual Review v1	Mid 2009	Will be used for 2008/09 Annual Review Questionnaire. (Compliance data still in WINZ 5)
Supplies including Grading	early 2010	Some functionality will be available in mid 2009
Sample Workbench & MoH Recognised Tests	2010	Until compliance is complete, users may have the option of WINZ 5 or 6 for samples.
Quarterly Compliance	2011/12
Scheduler	2012
Annual Review v2	Mid 2013	Will include data summary extraction from WINZ 6 compliance.

The above dates are a guide only and are subject to resourcing and MoH priorities.

Once Compliance is fully available in WINZ 6, WINZ 5 users will have the option to move across. Assistance will be given for a one-time historic data transfer from WINZ 5 for their organisation.

WINZ 5 support will cease a few months after all relevant functionality is available on the web system.

For Now, Data Management with Two Versions ...

It is much more difficult to manage data in two national drinking-water database systems than it is to manage one. Therefore we will be making a big effort to keep this time to a minimum.

The key principles we will use for this period is:

" One type of data will be editable in only one version (the primary version) at any one time. Data in the other version will be regularly synchronised but will be a read-only copy."

For example, in 2008, new supply zones, plants and sources are added and edited in the National copy of WINZ 5. WINZ 6 is updated with a copy of that data the same day. In mid 2009, that situation will reverse. WINZ 6 will manage the adds and edits for supplies, these will be copied to WINZ 5, and the editing facilities for them in WINZ 5 will be removed.

For organisation details, WINZ 6 became the primary database in mid 2008.

With monitoring samples and results, etc., this changeover will probably take place organisation by organisation as people decide over a period of months, rather than everybody needing to change the same day. However, again to avoid multiple datasets, each organisation will change over once, their old data will be optionally transferred, and then they won't go back to WINZ 5 for that module.

That's the strategy. There will no doubt be fine tuning as we progress, but it will be good for all once WINZ 6 is the single version for the whole country.

This page last updated: 12 November 2008.