NRCS GIS Products and Visualization

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NRCS GIS Products and Visualization Tom Pagano,
J Erxleben, T Perkins, P Pasteris
Tom.Pagano_at_por.usda.gov 503 414 3010 Natural
Resources Conservation Service
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Who we are/What we do Past practices What we
produce What we consume Musings and Conclusions
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NRCS Water and Climate Services 2005
Tom Perkins, Dave Garen, Jim Marron, Phil
Pasteris, Jennifer Erxleben, Jolyne Lea, Tom
Pagano
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NRCS Water and Climate Services 2005
Missouri Platte, Alaska
Colorado Rio Grande Arkansas
Climate Data
Columbia Snake
Pacific Coast
Management
Modeling Research
Tom Perkins, Dave Garen, Jim Marron, Phil
Pasteris, Jennifer Erxleben, Jolyne Lea, Tom
Pagano
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Location
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Location
Time Period
Historical Average
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Location
Time Period
Historical Average
Error Bounds
50 exceedence
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Seasonal water volume forecasts Issued
monthly/bi-monthly January-June Primary drivers
snowpack, antecedent precipitation Coordinated
with NWS
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Some maps of driver conditions
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NRCS forecast visualization past practices
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Primary suite of user products dates to
1950s Products available after forecasts
finished
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Until 2004, forecaster interface text based, no
visualization
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New realtime data streams that are now available
from NRCS
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Daily values updated 5x daily (6,8,10,14,2000)
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Anything in the maps is also available in .csv
format
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Normal
Water year precip
Normal
Snow water
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Normal
Current as normal
Water year precip
Normal
Snow water
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Normal
Current as normal peak
Water year precip
Normal
Snow water
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Normal
Month to date normal
Water year precip
Normal
Snow water
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Normal
Month to date monthly normal
Water year precip
Normal
Snow water
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Percentile ranking with respect to period of
record
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Is this a New record? Near record?
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Some limited products merging ACIS (NWS) and
SNOTEL (NRCS)
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Working with PRISM to get better
climatologies -- just added wed 7/14 day T anom
w/ Acis
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Data streams available but not yet automated
(i.e. episodic)
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Maps of historical snow water conditions, back to
the 1910s
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Limited but improving access to soil moisture data
Oct 1 2004
Soil moisture depth-averaged
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April 1 2004 Snowpack of average
NRCS Snowcourse and Snotel Networks Provisional
Data - Subject to Revision
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April 1 2004 Water Supply Forecasts of average
NRCS Snowcourse and Snotel Networks Provisional
Data - Subject to Revision
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Seizure warning
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Reservoir contents
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June 1st 2004Surface Water Supply
Indexconsiders streamflow and reservoir storage
in a historical contextHas non-insignificant
cross-state homogeneity issues
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Forecaster interface 2005
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Maps of period of record official forecast skill
Better
Worse
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Correlation of Apr 1 snow with summer streamflow
Worse
Better
Arkansas R nr Salida, CO
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Not necessarily GIS but cool nonetheless
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May 1 2005 Water Supply Forecasts - Colorado
River
Legend
Warren Bridge
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97
New Fork
Apr 1 Forecast as normal
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Granby
91
lt70
100-110
Fontenelle
110
Green Mountain
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70-80
110-120
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Big Sandy
Dotsero
80-90
120-150
Flaming Gorge
90
78
Eagle
90-100
gt150
L Snake
99
Duchesne
Roaring Fork
Yampa
85
81
209
Cameo
Gunnison nr Gunnison
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1971-2000 Apr-Jul Normal Flow (kaf)
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White
Blue Mesa
NF Gunnison
8000 4000 2000 1000 500 250
Tomichi
98
68
143
Green
104
100
97
Cisco
115
Lake Fork
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Gunnison Grand Junction
108
108
Powell Inflow
Animas
Vallecito
Uncompahgre
143
161
171
173
153
Carracus
Navajo
Bluff
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Stampede Pass SNOTEL Snow Water
Hist
2005
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Stampede Pass SNOTEL Snow Water
Hist
2005
Yakima Headwaters 5/5/2005 Normally would see no
breaks
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Stampede Pass SNOTEL Snow Water
Hist
2005
Yakima Headwaters 5/5/2005 Normally would see no
breaks First time snow free since 1940 Normal
snow depth 1 May 8 feet
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Midway Valley SNOTEL Snow Water
2005 proj
2005
Hist
Broke All-time All-month records with 3 months
left in season
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Mar 21
Midway Valley SNOTEL Snow Water
2005 proj
2005
Hist
Broke All-time All-month records with 3 months
left in season
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Seizure warning 2
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Interactive forecast interface (a.k.a. The
Dashboard)
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Interactive forecast interface (a.k.a. The
Dashboard)
Station selection
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Interactive forecast interface (a.k.a. The
Dashboard)
Quality of predictors
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Interactive forecast interface (a.k.a. The
Dashboard)
Calibration performance
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Interactive forecast interface (a.k.a. The
Dashboard)
Time series
Station availability
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Cross agency products ACIS precip, temp NOHRSC
snow USGS streamflow Univ Washington
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Merged NOHRSC and SNOTEL
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UW Spatial Soil Moisture Simulations
Percentiles (wrt 1960-99)
Simulated Surface Soil Moisture Rank Relative
to Historical Record
Wettest
Driest
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Univ Washington Drought Monitor-style color
bars for simulated soil moisture conditions
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Survey of short term GIS priorities Small-region
snow depth maps (recreation) Daily basin-filled
swe/precip normal maps Forecast point
maps Customizable interactive everything-map
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Reflections on a visual year
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Visual display of quantitative information How
good of a job are we doing? What role structured
testing?
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Elements of Good Communication
Is it easy to access? Is meaning clear? Is it
in a rich context? Can the user determine
relevance?
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Ease of access
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Ease of access
Where would you look for a summary of todays
snow conditions? Reservoir reports? A map of last
months precipitation?
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Interpretation, Context
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Interpretation, Context
Colors add no information
If this is the forecast distribution, what is
climatology (normal)?
Should these really be footnotes? Especially if
theyre inconsistently used?
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Analysis of products
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Analysis of products
Date
Muted background emphasizes non-static data
Color palette and symbols tested on color blind
viewers
Amount and interpretation
Metadata imbedded on plot
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Conclusions
New NRCS Data Available http//www.wcc.nrcs.usda.
gov/gis ftp//ftp.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/data/water/wcs
/gis/ Major changes in forecasting
capabilities Are we taking advantage of
communications research?