Bringing Water Data Together David R. Maidment Center for Research in Water Resources University of Texas at Austin Texas Water Summit San Antonio Tx, Dec 1, 2007

Bringing Water Data Together What has happened What is emerging What does it mean for Texas

Bringing Water Data Together What has happened What is emerging What does it mean for Texas

National Science Foundation In recent years, the National Science Foundation has significantly increased its funding of water science –Formation and support of CUAHSI to link universities doing water science –Design of WATERS network for field observation of water phenomena by academics

Ocean Sciences What is CUAHSI? CUAHSI – Consortium of Universities for the Advancement of Hydrologic Science, Inc Formed in 2001 as a legal entity Program office in Washington (5 staff) NSF supports CUAHSI to develop infrastructure and services to advance hydrologic science in US universities Earth Sciences Atmospheric Sciences UCAR CUAHSI Unidata HIS National Science Foundation Geosciences Directorate

CUAHSI Member Institutions 115 US Universities as of November 2007

Waters Network Testbed Sites

HIS WATERS Testbed CUAHSI Hydrologic Information System (HIS) NSF has funded work at 11 testbed sites, each with its own science agenda. HIS supplies the common information system

CUAHSI Observations Data Model

Point Observations Information Model Data Source Network Sites Variables Values {Value, Time, Qualifier, Offset} Utah State Univ Little Bear River Little Bear River at Mendon Rd Dissolved Oxygen 9.78 mg/L, 1 October 2007, 6PM GetSites GetSiteInfo GetVariables GetVariableInfo GetValues

Point Observations Information Model for USGS Daily Values Data Source Network Sites Variables Values {Value, Time, Qualifier} USGS Streamflow gages Neuse River near Clayton, NC Discharge, stage (Daily or instantaneous) 206 cfs, 13 August 2006 GetSites GetSiteInfo GetVariables GetVariableInfo GetValues

Observation Stations Ameriflux Towers (NASA & DOE)NOAA Automated Surface Observing System USGS National Water Information SystemNOAA Climate Reference Network Map for the US Build a common window on water data using web services

Observations Catalog Specifies what variables are measured at each site, over what time interval, and how many observations of each variable are available

WATERS Network Information System National Hydrologic Information Server San Diego Supercomputer Center WATERS testbed server Currently provides access to water data from 1246 sites in 16 observation networks Observations catalogs

Hydrologic Information Server Microsoft SQLServer Relational Database Observations Data Geospatial Data GetSites GetSiteInfo GetVariables GetVariableInfo GetValues DASH – data access system for hydrologyWaterOneFlow services ArcGIS Server

Bringing Water Data Together What has happened What is emerging What does it mean for Texas

We are at a tipping point …. Web pagesWeb services ComputerPerson Computer Internet Computer People interact with a remote information server Networks of information servers provide services to one another

Rainfall & Snow Water quantity and quality Remote sensing Water Data Modeling Meteorology Soil water

Information communication Water web pagesWater web services HyperText Markup Language (HTML) Water Markup Language (WaterML)

Locations Variables Time WaterML and WaterOneFlow GetSiteInfo GetVariableInfo GetValues WaterOneFlow Web Service Client TCEQ UT USGS Data Repositories Data EXTRACT TRANSFORM LOAD WaterML WaterML is an XML language for communicating water data WaterOneFlow is a set of web services based on WaterML

WaterOneFlow Set of query functionsReturn data in WaterML

Search multiple heterogeneous data sources simultaneously regardless of semantic or structural differences between them Objective NWIS NARR NAWQA NAM-12 request request return return What we used to do ….. Michael Piasecki Drexel University

Semantic Mediator What we are doing now ….. NWIS NAWQA NARR generic request GetValues GetValues HODM Michael Piasecki Drexel University

Hydroseek Supports search by location and type of data across multiple observation networks including NWIS, Storet, and university data

Definition The CUAHSI Hydrologic Information System (HIS) is a geographically distributed network of data sources and functions that are integrated using web services so that they operate as a connected whole.

Bringing Water Data Together What has happened What is emerging What does it mean for Texas

Prototype Texas HIS TWDB is supporting a small project at UT to start building a prototype Texas Hydrologic Information System Texas Hydrologic Information Server (at TNRIS) Texas Observations Catalogs and some state water datasets HIS servers at data sources (State agencies, River authorities, Water Districts, Cities, Counties….) WebServices

Levels of Government National data services (USGS, EPA, NCDC, NWS...) State data services (TCEQ, TWDB, TCEQ, ….) Web Services Regional data services (LCRA, BRA, City of Austin,...)

Connecting Modes Web page translators (many organizations) Custom-built web services into an existing data archive (USGS) Put data into a CUAHSI HIS Server (TWDB, TAMU- CC, TNRIS) Install an HIS data appliance connected to an existing data archive WaterML Hydrologic Information System WaterML Existing Archive WaterML HIS Appliance WaterML CUAHSI Translator Daily Values

Applications Rapid, low-cost data integration (flow- water quality-biology) enhances water science Better water data access for citizens Real-time emergency management water information network Environmental flows information system to support Senate Bill 3

Issues What is “official” data? –Data source must assure quality –Data is published through web services –Data is indexed through HydroSeek –Need an “information sharing agreement” between data source and publishing organization CUAHSI HIS is open source and available free of charge (NSF requirement)

Conclusions A new web services technology has emerged that can provide access and synthesis of water observations data –At many geographic locations –From many organizations (federal, state, local government, academia) –In a common format –With a common data description For more information, see