Bringing Water Data Together

David R. Maidment

Center for Research in Water Resources

University of Texas at Austin

Texas Water SummitSan 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

AtmosphericSciences

UCAR

CUAHSI

Unidata

HISNational Science Foundation

Geosciences Directorate

CUAHSI Member Institutions

115 US Universities as of November 2007

Waters Network Testbed Sites

HIS

WATERSTestbed

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 Modelhttp://www.cuahsi.org/his/odm.html

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

http://www.cuahsi.org/his/webservices.html

Point Observations Information Modelfor 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 System NOAA Climate Reference Network

Map for the US

Build a common window on water data using web services

Observations CatalogSpecifies 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 ServerSan 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 pages • Web services

Computer Person Computer

Internet Internet

Computer

People interact with a remote information server

Networks of information serversprovide services to one another

Rainfall & SnowWater quantity

and quality

Remote sensing

Water Data

Modeling Meteorology

Soil water

Information communication

• Water web pages • Water web services

HyperText Markup Language (HTML)

Water Markup Language (WaterML)

Locations

Variables

Time

WaterML and WaterOneFlow

GetSiteInfoGetVariableInfoGetValues

WaterOneFlowWeb Service

Client

TCEQ

UTUSGS

DataRepositories

Data

DataData

EXTRACTTRANSFORMLOAD

WaterML

WaterML is an XML language for communicating water dataWaterOneFlow is a set of web services based on WaterML

WaterOneFlow• Set of query functions • Return data in WaterML

• Search multiple heterogeneous data sources simultaneously regardless of semantic or structural differences between them

Objective

NWIS

NARR

NAWQANAM-12

request

request

request

request

request

requestrequest

request

request

return

return

return

return

return

returnreturn

return

return

What we used to do …..

Michael PiaseckiDrexel University

Semantic MediatorWhat we are doing now …..

NWIS

NAWQA

NARR

generic

request

GetValues

GetValues

GetValues

GetValues

GetValues

GetValuesGetValues

GetValues

GetValues HODM

Michael PiaseckiDrexel University

Hydroseekhttp://www.hydroseek.org

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

DefinitionThe 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 atdata sources

(State agencies,River authorities,

Water Districts, Cities,Counties….)

Web Services

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

ExistingArchive

WaterMLHIS Appliance

WaterMLCUAHSITranslator

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 http://www.cuahsi.org/his.html