David R. Maidment

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Building a National Hydrologic Information System

• David R. Maidment
• Project Leader, CUAHSI HIS
• Director, Center for Research in Water Resources,
  University of Texas at Austin

http//www.cuahsi.org/his.html
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Building a National HIS

• A science problem
• Organizing for a National HIS
• HIS Server
• WaterOneFlow Web Services
• Where to from here?

3
Building a National HIS

• A science problem
• Organizing for a National HIS
• HIS Server
• WaterOneFlow Web Services
• Where to from here?

4
Transformative Science
Quantitatively predict the response of the
shallow Earth system  (soil, surface rocks,
water) to perturbations in human time scales
(eg., climate change, extreme events, land use
shifts) to a level of confidence approaching
those now possible for atmospheric and ocean
systems.  Such predictions could be enabled by CI
(science driver) and will inform policies on
mitigation, response and adaptation (societal
justification)
Conceived by Jun Abrajano
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Digital Watershed
How can hydrologists integrate observed and
modeled data from various sources into a single
description of the environment?
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A Science ProblemWhat will be the state of the
earth in 2100?
Climate and anthropogenic change
Hydrology in a dynamic earth
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Disciplinary Integration
Atmosphere
Hydrology
Ecology
Ocean
Geology
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Hydrologic Science
It is as important to represent hydrologic
environments precisely with data as it is to
represent hydrologic processes with equations
Physical laws and principles (Mass, momentum,
energy, chemistry)
Hydrologic Process Science (Equations, simulation
models, prediction)
Hydrologic conditions (Fluxes, flows,
concentrations)
Hydrologic Information Science (Observations,
data models, visualization
Hydrologic environment (Dynamic earth)
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Data Cube
A simple data model
Time, T
When
D
Where
Space, L
Variables, V
What
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Continuous Space-Time Model NetCDF (Unidata)
Time, T
Coordinate dimensions X
D
Space, L
Variable dimensions Y
Variables, V
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North American Regional Reanalysis of Climate
Precipitation
Evaporation
Variation during the day, July 2003
NetCDF format
mm / 3 hours
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Discrete Space-Time Data ModelArcHydro
Time, TSDateTime
TSValue
Space, FeatureID
Variables, TSTypeID
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OpenMI Conceptual Framework
Interconnection of dynamic simulation models
VALUES
10 million project sponsored by European
Commission
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Building a National HIS

• A science problem
• Organizing for a National HIS
• HIS Server
• WaterOneFlow Web Services
• Where to from here?

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CUAHSI-Hydrologic Information Systems
UCAR

• CUAHSI Consortium of Universities for the
  Advancement of Hydrologic Science, Inc
• Formed in 2001 as a legal entity
• Program office in Washington (5 staff)
• Supported by the National Science Foundation

Unidata
Atmospheric Sciences
Ocean Sciences
Earth Sciences
CUAHSI
National Science Foundation Geosciences
Directorate
HIS
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CUAHSI Member Institutions
112 US Universities as of March 2007
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HIS Team and its Cyberinfrastructure Partners
Government USGS, EPA, NCDC, USDA
Industry ESRI, Kisters, Microsoft
CUAHSI HIS
HIS Team Texas, SDSC, Utah, Drexel, Duke
Super Computer Centers NCSA, TACC
Domain Sciences Unidata, NCAR LTER, CZEN GEON
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WATERS Network Information System
HIS Team
WATERS Testbed
NSF has funded work at 10 testbed sites, each
with its own science agenda. HIS supplies the
common information system
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HIS, WATERS and the CUAHSI Community
Government USGS, EPA, NCDC, USDA
Industry ESRI, Kisters, OpenMI
CUAHSI HIS
WATERS Network Information System
HIS Team
WATERS Testbed
Super computer Centers NCSA, TACC
Domain Sciences Unidata, NCAR LTER, GEON
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International Partners
European Commission Water database design and
model integration (OpenMI)
CSIRO Land and Water Resources Water Resources
Observations Network (WRON)
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Building a National HIS

• A science problem
• Organizing for a National HIS
• HIS Server
• WaterOneFlow Web Services
• Where to from here?

22
Definition
The CUAHSI Hydrologic Information System (HIS) is
a geographically distributed network of
hydrologic data sources and functions that are
integrated using web services so that they
function as a connected whole.
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Water Data
Water quantity and quality
Rainfall Snow
Soil water
Modeling
Meteorology
Remote sensing
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Water Data Web Sites
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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
02087500 NEUSE RIVER NEAR CLAYTON,
NC agency_cd site_no dv_dt dv_va dv_cd USGS 0208
7500 2003-09-01 1190 USGS 02087500 2003-09-02 649
USGS 02087500 2003-09-03 525 USGS 02087500 2003
-09-04 486 USGS 02087500 2003-09-05 733 USGS 020
87500 2003-09-06 585 USGS 02087500 2003-09-07 485
USGS 02087500 2003-09-08 463 USGS 02087500 2003
-09-09 673 USGS 02087500 2003-09-10 517 USGS 020
87500 2003-09-11 454
Time series of streamflow at a gaging station
USGS has committed to supporting
CUAHSIs GetValues function
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Observation Stations
Map for the US
Ameriflux Towers (NASA DOE)
NOAA Automated Surface Observing System
USGS National Water Information System
NOAA Climate Reference Network
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Water Quality Measurement Sites in EPA Storet
Substantial variation in data availability from
states
Data from Bora Beran, Drexel University
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Water Quality Measurement Sites from Texas
Commission for Environmental Quality (TCEQ)
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Geographic Integration of Storet and TCEQ Data in
HIS
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Observations Catalog
Specifies what variables are measured at each
site, over what time interval, and how many
observations of each variable are available
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HIS Server
(being built by CUAHSI HIS in collaboration with
ESRI)
NASA
NCDC
EPA
NWS
Observatory Data
USGS
A common data window for accessing, viewing and
downloading hydrologic information

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HIS Server

• Supports data discovery, delivery and publication
• Data discovery how do I find the data I want?
• Map interface and observations catalogs
• Metadata based Search
• Data delivery how do I acquire the data I want?
• Use web services or retrieve from local database
• Data Publication how do I publish my
  observation data?
• Use Observations Data Model

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Building a National HIS

• A science problem
• Organizing for a National HIS
• HIS Server
• WaterOneFlow Web Services
• Where to from here?

34
Point Observations Information Model
http//www.cuahsi.org/his/webservices.html
USGS
Data Source
Network
Streamflow gages
Sites
Neuse River near Clayton, NC
Variables
Discharge, stage (Daily or instantaneous)
Values
Value, Time, Qualifier
206 cfs, 13 August 2006

• A data source operates an observation network
• A network is a set of observation sites
• A site is a point location where one or more
  variables are measured
• A variable is a property describing the flow or
  quality of water
• A value is an observation of a variable at a
  particular time
• A qualifier is a symbol that provides
  additional information about the value

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WaterML and WaterOneFlow
STORET
Data
GetSiteInfo GetVariableInfo GetValues
NAM
Data
NWIS
Data
WaterML
WaterOneFlow Web Service
Data Repositories
Client
EXTRACT
TRANSFORM
LOAD
WaterML is an XML language for communicating
water data WaterOneFlow is a set of web services
based on WaterML
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WaterOneFlow

• Set of query functions

• Returns data in WaterML

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Data Sources
NASA
Storet
Ameriflux
Unidata
NCDC
Extract
NWIS
NCAR
Transform
CUAHSI Web Services
Excel
Visual Basic
ArcGIS
C/C
Load
Matlab
Fortran
Access
Java
Applications
Some operational services
http//www.cuahsi.org/his/
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HIS Server and Analyst
HIS Server
HIS Analyst
Implemented at San Diego Supercomputer Center and
at academic departments and research centers
Implemented by individual hydrologic scientists
using their own analysis environments
Web Services
Flexible any operating system, model,
programming language or application
Sustainable industrial strength technology
http//www.cuahsi.org/his/webservices.html
Details of HIS Analyst are here
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Water OneFlow

• We need a Water OneFlow a common window for
  water data and models
• Advancement of water science is critically
  dependent on integration of water information

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Building National HIS

• A science problem
• Organizing for a National HIS
• HIS Server
• WaterOneFlow Web Services
• Where to from here?

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EarthChem
http//www.earthchem.org/EarthChemWeb/
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PetDB sitesThe Petrological Database of the
Ocean Floor
9259 sites as of February 2007
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NavDatWestern North American Intrusive and
Volcanic Rock Database
38,028 records as of July 2006
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Develop a Common Point Observations Information
Model?
PetDB
Data Source
Network
Ocean boreholes
Sites
Site 13 in the Continental Rift
Variables
Magnesium
Values
Value, Depth
2.4 mg/kg, 210m

• A data source operates an observation network
• A network is a set of observation sites
• A site is a point location where one or more
  variables are measured
• A variable is a property describing the flow or
  quality of water
• A value is an observation of a variable at a
  particular time or depth
• A qualifier is a symbol that provides
  additional information about the value

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Groundwater Wells in USGS National Water
Information System (NWIS)
1,122,738 wells (CUAHSI catalog not complete yet)
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Texas Wells Database (Texas Water Development
Board)
132,195 wells
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NWIS Texas wells
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Wells in Arizona
Arizona Groundwater Site Inventory (ADWR-USGS)
Arizona Well Registry (ADWR)
43,016 wells
33,868 wells
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NWIS Arizona wells
Build a federated National Wells Information
System
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Watershed Hydrovolumes
Hydrovolume
Geovolume is the portion of a hydrovolume that
contains solid earth materials
USGS Gaging stations
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Linking surface water and groundwater data
Hydrovolumes and Geovolumes
Hydro network
Aquifers
In the future go to 3D...
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Geographic Data Model for Groundwater

• Hydrogeology 2D and 3D features, tables, and
  rasters to describe hydrogeologic features such
  as wells, aquifers, cross sections, volumes,
  streams, land surface etc.
• Simulation Objects for georeferencing
  grids/meshes of simulation models.
• Time Series Temporal information stored in
  tables and as cataloged rasters.

Link geographic data models for Groundwater
and Geology?
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Multiscale Information System

• Global data
• National data
• State data
• Project in region .
• PIs (our datasets)

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Corpus Christi Bay WATERS Testbed site
NCDC station
TCOON stations
TCEQ stations
Hypoxic Regions
Montagna stations
USGS gages
SERF stations
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National Geoinformatics where to?

• Work on a common point observations information
  model
• For points with temporal and 3D depth information
• Develop other formal information models
• Geographic information models
• Information model for cores?
• Start prototyping
• National wells database
• Testbeds in selected states (Tx? Az? Ks?...)

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Conclusions

• We need hydrology in a dynamic earth
• Need geoinformatics systems for geologic
  time-space and current time-space (1D, 2D, 3D)
• Community organization is important
• Need a formal Geoinformatics Consortium?
• Point observations information servers have
  common structure and broad application
• Web services and XML markup languages are crucial
• Get started with test beds and prototyping