Bringing Water Data Together

Abstract

We are living through an information revolution. We are instantly connected to information and services through the internet, and communicate through e-mail with colleagues spread all over the globe, without regard to distance or their computer system. How can the power of this information revolution be brought to bear on water resources? This editorial presents some perspectives I have derived from my service as leader of the Consortium of Universities for the Advancement of Hydrologic Science, Inc. CUAHSI Hydrologic Information System HIS project, a Nation Science Foundation NSF -supported effort to improve hydrologic science through better data access and organization at the nation’s universities. The circulation of the waters of the earth through the hydrologic cycle is a very complex phenomenon. Many agencies and individuals collect water observations data on streamflow, water quality, groundwater levels, precipitation, snow conditions, and climate. The largest repository of such data in the United States is the United States Geological Survey USGS National Water Information System NWIS , which contains information from about 1.6 million sites for streamflow, water quality, and groundwater. Other large federal repositories of water observations data are the Environmental Protection Agency EPA Storet Storage and Retrieval for water quality, the National Climatic Data Center’s Climate Data Online, and the United States Department of Agriculture USDA -National Resources Conservation Service NRCS Snotel and Soil Climate Analysis Network SCAN databases. Agencies such as the Bureau of Reclamation and the Corps of Engineers store water operations data at reservoirs and other facilities. This panoply of federal data is augmented by similar data collected by state and local water agencies. Academic and research investigators collect data for individual research projects, and contribute significantly to subjects, such as aquatic biology and continuous monitoring of water quality, that are not the traditional focus of the large water agencies. The aggregation of all this water observations information defines the historical record of the water conditions of the nation. The task of assembling all the relevant information for a particular purpose in a chosen geographic region is greatly facilitated by the publication of much of the data on Web sites. However, every organization follows its own method in constructing its Web site and formatting the data presented there, so it still requires a great deal of effort to discover, learn, and operate all these various Web data sources. And, much of the data collected by academic and research investigators is no longer accessible once research studies are completed. Water conditions have been measured in the nation at several million locations, but no comprehensive window on water data exists. The growth of information sharing across the internet has led to the definition of standards for communication among computers. One of these standards is the HyperText Markup Language HTML used for communication of information visible in Web