WQX Water Quality Exchange

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Web ServicesUSGS/EPA CollaborationNovember 27,
2007Dwane Young, U.S. EPANate Booth, USGS
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USGS NWIS STORET Over Time
NWIS
2003 USGS / EPA Agreement
2007 Water- Quality Data Exchange
Data copied from NWIS to STORET
1960s NWPCA (WATSTORE)
1999 Modern STORET
1972 EPA created
Legacy STORET
USGS National Water Information System
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Why Now?

• Business
• Water-quality data standards (NWQMC)
• Move towards monitoring network partnerships
• Technical
• Industry move towards data and process sharing
• Technology standards

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Overview

• EPA and USGS are working together to develop a
  commons suite of web services
• These services will allow for sharing of water
  monitoring data via a common format and common
  terminology
• The initial project is underway, and the new web
  services are now available, some work remains to
  accommodate WQX 2.0 and to ensure final
  compatibility

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What is a Web Service?
USGS
Internet (XML)
EPA

• Computer-to-computer
• Uses Input parameters and outputs XML
• Can be used in multiple ways by many applications

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A common web service example
Weather Network
Weatherbug is an example that many are familiar
with This is all done via a Web Service
Returns XML
Weatherbug translates XML into information for
the task bar
Input Parameter Zip Code
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An example using Monitoring Data
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NWIS Water-Quality Web Services
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XML XML
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XML XLS
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XML Google Earth (KML)
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What Web Services are planned?

• Four core services are being developed
• Stations service provides specific station
  information
• Results service provides results for modeling,
  analysis, and decision making
• Watershed/Station Catalog service provides
  summary information on what data are available
• Project Catalog service provides summary
  information by projects based on an input of
  min/max latitude/longitude

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So What?

• Web Services allow for more accessibility to the
  data. You are no longer limited to EPA or USGS
  interfaces for interacting with the data.
• Web Services makes a STORET/NWIS collaboration
  possible.

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So What? (contd)

• Web services can
• potentially serve as feeds for other state
  reporting or analysis databases
• provide a commonly formatted dataset for data
  analysis and modeling
• serve as the backbone for project data
  applications (mashups)

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A Theoretical Application
A user zooms into an area of interest
The Stations Web Service returns the list of
stations with lat/longs for that area of interest
The Application draws the stations on the map and
then calls the catalog web service to get summary
information
The Application also calls the Projects catalog
web service so that it can display project
summary information
The user can then interact with the data,
retrieving data by Station Date
Range Chemical Name etc.
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STORET/NWIS Collaboration

• A USGS/EPA workgroup has been formed to work
  through collaboration issues
• Mapping the Parameter Codes to EPAs Substance
  Registry System
• Defining common site characteristics and sample
  media
• Identifying a common schema (based on WQX)
• Developing common web services with common input
  parameters

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Schedule

• EPA services are now available and USGS services
  are in testing
• Some final work needs to be done to ensure final
  compatibility
• Expect full implementation by early next year

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Whats Next?

• A common portal for interacting with these
  services will need to be developed
• Expanding the net
• These methodologies could grow beyond the current
  collaboration, and potentially include
• Sharing data with other countries (Canada,
  Mexico)
• NOAA
• Army Corps of Engineers
• National Science Foundation
• Other EPA offices running monitoring operations
  (Great Lakes, Chesapeake Bay)

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Whats Next? (contd)

• Define a common spatial framework
• Streams NHD
• Groundwater Aquifer
• Choose a common methods dictionary (NEMI)
• Expand schema to better describe suspended
  sediment and groundwater data
• Deal with duplicated data
• USGS considering Exchange Network node (2.0)
• USGS closing loop with faster data refresh
• Other USGS web services Daily, Unit values

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QA