State water program enhances web presence

Kansas

Improved customer service and greater information sharing are goals the Kansas Department of Agriculture had in mind when the agency created a web portal for the division of water resources.

The agency is encouraging visitors to visit the portal at www.ksda.gov/dwr/ and to recommend how the site can be improved even more.

"We want visitors to our site to be able to access the information they need quickly and easily," said David Barfield, chief engineer of the division. "If we're not succeeding, we want folks to tell us."

Among the improvements made so far are:

--Quicker access to division of water resources information;

--Public hearing notices appear more prominently;

--The data, maps and links area has been expanded;

--Contact information is easier to access;

--Statutes, regulations and forms are structured in an all-inclusive list;

--The DWR Currents newsletter is available through an online subscription and through an online newsletter archive;

--Weekly updates are posted on conditions in the Republican River basin related to minimum desirable streamflow;

--2007 field summary reports are posted for each project area covered by the subbasin water resource management programImprovements in the queue include:

--all forms in portable document format are being converted to enable writable fields so applicants can fill them out online, although paper applications will still be accepted

--fact sheets are being developed on topics of significant interest already built into the portal is a comments section where visitors can offer feedback.

"This is a concerted effort to make more information available to more people to maximize our web presence," Barfield said.

8/4/08
1 Star WK\11-B

Date: 7/31/08

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