1. Log in. You must be a member of Datashed and logged in to create a new sample point. You must also be an approved member of the project.
2. Find and select the Project or Stream, that you wish to create a sample point. You can either choose your project from your "My Projects" list or find the project through the various search criteria.
3. Click on the "Sample Points" link, a dropdown menu will appear.
4. Click the "Add New Sample Point" link.
5. A form will appear. Enter as much information in the form as you can about the sample point. If you don't know something, skip it, you can always edit it later.
a. Make sure you name the point exactly the way you will refer to it in future spreadsheets and data uploads.
b. Identify the sample Type as AMD, passive, active, stream, well, or other.
c. It is important to identify if the sample point is either an inflow (aka influent - water entering the treatment system such as an untreated mine discharge) or an outflow (aka effluent - water leaving the treatment system) sample point. To do this, check the appropriate box. If the sample is neither an influent or effluent sample, do not check either box. This is important in order for the Water Quality Summary Table to appear or for the Project Performance data to be calculated and displayed on the Project Details page.
d. Flow order is used to order the sample samples in reports. Typically this makes sense from upstream to downstream.
e. It is important to provide the latitude and longitude in order for the sample point to be displayed in maps.
f. Aliases are used to identify if sample points have more than one name, especially by other organizations.
g. ID's are mainly used for the SIS-Datashed import feature.
6. Once you are finished, click on the Save button at the bottom of the form.
An older video tutorial on "How to Create a Sample Point" from the old version of Datashed is still available and still somewhat relevant, but does not exactly match the current process. A new updated video will be developed in the future.