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Why Share Your Data?

Open data sharing in the water sector has significant benefits  for the broader research community and for data contributors themselves:

For the water sector and South Africa: Fragmented, siloed data is one of the biggest barriers to effective water resource management in South Africa. When researchers, monitoring agencies, and institutions share their data openly, it enables cross-catchment analysis, long-term trend detection, and more robust modelling that no single dataset could support alone. Shared data also reduces duplication of effort and helps direct future research investment more strategically.

For you as a contributor: Datasets uploaded to the WRO receive a unique identifier and are formally citable, increasing the visibility and impact of your research. Shared datasets can also attract collaboration, enable peer verification of results, and demonstrate research output beyond traditional publications – increasingly important for funding and institutional reporting.

Your Responsibilities as a Data Contributor

Uploading data to the WRO carries important responsibilities. Contributors are expected to:

• Ensure they have the right to share the data and that any necessary permissions, ethics approvals, or institutional authorisations have been obtained

• Provide accurate and complete metadata so that other users can correctly interpret and apply the data

• Clearly indicate any limitations, known errors, or conditions of use associated with the dataset

• Not upload data that contains personally identifiable information or sensitive information that could cause harm if disclosed

• Comply with the WRO Terms and Conditions

Before You Upload

To ensure your data is correctly formatted and structured for the WRO platform, please review the User Guide before uploading. This document provides guidance on file formats, naming conventions, and metadata requirements.

If you would like to use AI to assist in collecting metadata, please see here a recommended prompt that can be used to collect data and create an eXtensible Markup Language (XML) file that can be uploaded. It is essential to double-check all metadata and datasets that are uploaded. 

Ready to Upload?

Upload Data to the WRO →

You will need to be a registered user to upload data. If you do not yet have an account, you can register on the WRO data platform.