Hydrologic Information System for the Nation David R. Maidment Director Center for Research in Water Resources, University of Texas at Austin

Consortium of Universities for the Advancement of Hydrologic Science, Inc (CUAHSI) Supported by the National Science Foundation Supported by the National Science Foundation Develops cyberinfrastructure and services for hydrologic science in US universities Develops cyberinfrastructure and services for hydrologic science in US universities Legally independent organization based in Washington DC Legally independent organization based in Washington DC CUAHSI HydroView Components Hydrologic Synthesis Hydrologic Observatories Hydrologic Information Systems Measurement Technology

CUAHSI HIS Partner Institutions Project Collaborator CUAHSI Member CUAHSI has 110 member universities

HIS Goals Hydrologic Data Access System – better access to a large volume of high quality hydrologic data Hydrologic Data Access System – better access to a large volume of high quality hydrologic data Support for Observatories – synthesizing hydrologic data for a region Support for Observatories – synthesizing hydrologic data for a region Advancement of Hydrologic Science – data modeling and advanced analysis Advancement of Hydrologic Science – data modeling and advanced analysis Hydrologic Education – better data in the classroom, basin-focused teaching Hydrologic Education – better data in the classroom, basin-focused teaching

Most used applications are Most used applications are – Excel – ArcGIS – Matlab Then come programming languages Then come programming languages – Fortran – C/C++ – Visual Basic Which of the four HIS goals is most important to you? DataAccess ScienceObservatories Education CUAHSI Member Survey Results

1:1200 scale CUAHSI Hydrologic Information System United States 1:500,000 scale River Basin 1:100,000 scale Watershed 1:24,000 scale River reach A multiscale web portal system for water data and models Point scale A home 1:1,000,000 scale North American and Global

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

Water Data Web Sites

NWISWeb site output # agency_cd Agency Code # site_no USGS station number # dv_dt date of daily mean streamflow # dv_va daily mean streamflow value, in cubic-feet per-second # dv_cd daily mean streamflow value qualification code # # Sites in this file include: # USGS NEUSE RIVER NEAR CLAYTON, NC # agency_cdsite_nodv_dtdv_vadv_cd USGS USGS USGS USGS USGS USGS USGS USGS USGS USGS USGS Time series of streamflow at a gaging station

CUAHSI Hydrologic Data Access System A common data window for accessing, viewing and downloading hydrologic information USGS NASANCDC EPANWS Observatory Data

Observation Stations Ameriflux Towers (NASA & DOE)NOAA Automated Surface Observing System USGS National Water Information SystemNOAA Climate Reference Network Observation Stations Map for the US

NWIS Station Observation Metadata Describe what has been measured at this station

NWIS ArcGIS Excel NCAR LTER NAWQA Storet NCDC Ameriflux Matlab AccessSAS Fortran Visual Basic C/C++ Some operational services CUAHSI Web Services Data Sources Applications Extract Transform Load

Web Page Scraping Programmatically construct a URL string as produced by manual use of the web page Parse the resulting ASCII file

CUAHSI Web Services Web Services Library Web Application: Data Portal Your application Excel, ArcGIS, Matlab Fortran, C/C++, Visual Basic Hydrologic model ……………. Your operating system Windows, Unix, Linux, Mac Internet Simple Object Access Protocol

Technology transfer from academia to private sector to public sector took less than 1 week! Transfer of Research Results Friday Oct 28: I announced the NWIS web services in a CUAHSI cyberseminarFriday Oct 28: I announced the NWIS web services in a CUAHSI cyberseminar Wednesday Nov 2: Jason Love, from a private firm, RESPEC, in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, posted on the EPA Basins list server: “Occasionally one comes across something that is worth sharing; the CUAHSI Hydrologic Information Systems - Web Services Library for NWIS is a valuable tool for those of us interested in rapidly acquiring and processing data from the USGS, e.g., calibrating models and performing watershed assessments.”Wednesday Nov 2: Jason Love, from a private firm, RESPEC, in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, posted on the EPA Basins list server: “Occasionally one comes across something that is worth sharing; the CUAHSI Hydrologic Information Systems - Web Services Library for NWIS is a valuable tool for those of us interested in rapidly acquiring and processing data from the USGS, e.g., calibrating models and performing watershed assessments.” He provided a tutorial on how to use the services with MatlabHe provided a tutorial on how to use the services with Matlab

Series and Fields Features Point, line, area, volume Discrete space representation Series – ordered sequence of numbers Time series – indexed by time Frequency series – indexed by frequency Surfaces Fields – multidimensional arrays Scalar fields – single value at each location Vector fields – magnitude and direction Random fields – probability distribution Continuous space representation

mm / 3 hours Precipitation Evaporation North American Regional Reanalysis of Climate Variation during the day, July 2003 NetCDF format

Digital Watershed How can hydrologists integrate observed and modeled data from various sources into a single description of the environment?

Digital Watershed A digital watershed is an overlay of observation series and fields on a geospatial framework to form a connected database for a hydrologic region Digital Watershed Hydrologic Observation Series GeospatialData Remote Sensing Fields Weather and Climate Fields

Digital Watershed: Prototype for the Neuse basin

CUAHSI Hydrologic Information System Hydrologic Information System HydrologicObservingSystemHydrologicModelingSystem

Watershed Hydrovolumes Geovolume is the portion of a hydrovolume that contains solid earth materials USGS Gaging stations Hydrovolume

Water Balance Model Precipitation Streamflow Vertical water fluxes of evaporation, precipitation, and groundwater, and inflow and outflow in streams, change water storage in watershed Groundwater recharge Evaporation StorageStreamflow “How much water do we have? “ George W. Bush during 1996 Texas drought

Water Balancing Model FieldsSeriesGeospatial

Water OneStop Like Geospatial OneStop, we need a “Water OneStop” – a common window for water data and models Like Geospatial OneStop, we need a “Water OneStop” – a common window for water data and models Advancement of water science is critically dependent on integration of water information Advancement of water science is critically dependent on integration of water information Federal Academic Local State