DANalytics Environmental

It Started With a Totally Normal Conversation

Mon, 03 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Every origin story gets tidied up in the retelling. Ours does not need much help, because it started the way most of our projects start: Amy asked a question that sounded innocent, and I answered it honestly, which was my mistake.

The conversation went like this.

Amy: “So… would it be useful if more water quality data was collected along the Carson River?”
Dan: “Yes, it would.”
Amy: “Can anyone collect water quality data?”
Dan: “Yes, they can.”
Amy: “Could I collect water quality data?”
Dan: “…Technically, yes.”
Amy: “Could the Green Biz Kidz collect water quality data?”
Dan: “Yes…”
Amy: “Interesting…”

How to Trick a Teenager Into Doing Real Science

Sat, 25 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

I need to confess something about the software in Amy’s classroom.

It’s a trap. And I built it.

Let me be clear about who’s talking, because it matters. I’m not a teacher. My wife, Amy Riddle, is — a master’s in education, a degree in natural resources interpretation, a room of sixth graders currently piloting an app I wrote called Project FLOW, and the Chapter Lead for the whole thing. I’m the environmental scientist in the house. I’ve spent years in rivers and a good while training early-career scientists, but I have never run a middle school classroom, and I’m not going to pretend I could. She teaches. I build the software, hide lessons inside it, and then get to watch — mostly from the other side of the dinner table — what happens when a twelve-year-old trips over one.

Contact

Wed, 22 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

DANalytics Environmental is a one-person company in Carson City, Nevada. That means you will be talking to the person who writes the software, and you will get an answer within two business days.

Who we work with

Tribal environmental programs · watershed coalitions · conservation districts · municipal utilities · schools and educational monitoring programs · researchers

Project FLOW

Wed, 22 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Future Leaders of Our Watersheds.

Local questions. Custom tools. Real data. Student leadership. Healthier watersheds.

Project FLOW engages students as practicing watershed scientists. It is a chapter-based environmental education and community monitoring program offered through DANalytics Environmental, which provides the configurable platform, chapter onboarding, data tools, and technical support a school needs to collect data that actually means something.

Software

Wed, 22 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

On this page

Environmental monitoring software is built for two kinds of organizations: the very large and the very well funded. Everyone else gets a spreadsheet.

The Confluence

Wed, 22 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A confluence is where two streams meet and combine flow. It is also where separate records of a watershed can join into a single picture.

The Confluence is where DANalytics publishes public watershed reports.

Every Project FLOW classroom and every CEDAR deployment produces a record of a place — continuous sensor data, field measurements, and the public streamflow, snowpack, and climate context that surrounds them. Those records are normally seen only by the people who collect them, in software the public will never open.

The First Year Didn't Go as Planned

Wed, 22 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The plan was straightforward. A multiparameter sonde in the Carson River, logging water temperature, specific conductance, and dissolved oxygen around the clock. Students at Eagle Valley Middle School would pull the records, run them through quality control, correct the drift, and end the year with a dataset that was genuinely theirs. The Rotary Club of Carson City funded the equipment. The Nevada Division of Environmental Protection provided technical guidance and a continuous temperature logger.