Hydrologic Information Use and Needs Assessment Utah State University

1
Hydrologic Information Use and Needs
AssessmentUtah State University

• Examples of Existing Systems
• User Needs Assessment Survey Results

David G Tarboton with input from Jeff Horsburgh,
Rob Gillies, Christina Bandaragoda, John Weeks,
Doug Ramsey
2
Some existing hydrology related information
systems at USU

• Bear River Watershed Information System
• Intermountain Region Digital Image Archive
  (IRDIAC)
• Climate and Weather Data Server
• UNIDATA port

3
(No Transcript)
4
Internet Based WISBear River http//water.usu.edu
/wis/bear_river/Great Salt Lake
http//greatsaltlake.utah.edu/

• Web browser as client software
• All databases and data analysis managed on master
  server
• ESRIs ArcIMS powers the map server and provides
  visualization of GIS datasets
• SQL Server and Time Series Analyst manage time
  series data and provide access to analysis and
  visualization

5
(No Transcript)
6
(No Transcript)
7

• Servers
• Web Server Dell PowerEdge 700, 3000
• Database Server Dell PowerEdge 2800, 3000
• Base Station for real time data collection,
  Pentium III 600 MHz, lt 1000 now.
• Operating Systems
• Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP
• Software
• IIS v6.0
• .Net Framework v1.1
• ProEssentials v5 (for time series plotting)
• ArcIMS v4.0
• ArcGIS
• Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Standard Edition

8

• Disk Space
• 223 GB hard drive/20 GB used
• Communication
• 100Mb connection to USU internet
• Operators
• Jeff Horsburgh Research Engineer with expertise
  in data analysis, data manipulation, GIS,
  modeling, custom GIS application development,
  etc.
• Rick Satterfield Graduate Student system
  programmer with expertise in developing and
  deploying Internet applications
• Crystal Yap data technician (downloading,
  formatting, etc.)
• Amber Spackman data technician (downloading,
  formatting, etc.)

9
http//earth.gis.usu.edu
10

• Servers
• Sunfire 280R server with 2 1.2 GHz processors and
  8GB RAM, 20,000
• Partnership in Beowulf Linux Cluster
• Windows Server to support ArcGIS geodatabase
  processing
• Operating Systems
• Solaris, Linux, Windows Server XP
• Software
• MSQL
• Apache and Tomcat web services
• MapServer, PHP, PHP Mapscript
• GDAL and IDL/ENVI for image processing
• ESRI Geodatabase Server

11

• Disk Space
• 2TB at 95 capacity
• Communication
• 1GB connection to USU internet
• Operators
• 1 FTE programmer/analyst with knowledge of C,
  PHP, IDL, GIS programming languages and scripts.
• ½ FTE web developer
• ¼ - ½ FTE System Administrator with knowledge in
  Solaris, Linux, and PC networking architecture,
  security, installation and integration if 3rd-
  party software, etc.
• ½ FTE Project Manager to oversee and manage daily
  activities.
• ¼ ½ FTE Project Director.
• 3 student technicians (1.5 FTE) that organize,
  process imagery and data, populate the image
  database, and provide programming and web
  support.
• 2 postdoctoral fellows to provide research support

12
Climate and Weather Data Server
13
Integrated Weather and Climate Database

• Goals
• Data Ingestion from Many Sources
• WEB Accessible
• User Friendly Navigation and Interfaces
• User Friendly Data Output
• High Quality Reports and Graphs
• High Quality Maps
• All available climate data in one location

Currently offline - undergoing restructuring!
14

• Servers
• One Windows PC, 3000, System Management Front
  end
• Two Redhat Linux PC, 3000, Apache Web Servers
• 1TB RAID Disk Array 6000
• Operating Systems
• Windows Server 2003
• RedHat Enterprise Linux
• Software
• PostgreSQL
• Apache Web Services
• In house developed applications

15

• Disk Space
• 120GB, 30 full
• 250GB, 40 full
• 1000GB (1TB), 60 full
• Communication
• 100MB connection to USU internet
• Operators
• Systems Administrator - MS Windows, RedHat Linux
• Programmer to build custom utilities Java, C,
  C, Perl
• Software Management and Maintenance - Third Party
  or In house
• Subject Matter Expert - Climate

16
UNIDATA- access and visualization of
meteorological information

• IDD Data Feed

Data is ingested using a client / server program
- Local Data Manager. Scripts are configured to
select data through pattern matching techniques
which define data requested and amount. Currently
USU ingests 1GB / hour.
17
Visualization and Analysis

• Several custom software packages are made
  available for analysis and visualization of data
• Interactive Data Viewer (IDV) - shown on left
• McIDAS
• GEMPACK

18

• Servers
• Solaris Ultra 10, lt 500 now
• Operating Systems
• Solaris
• Software
• LDM
• Unidata
• McIdas

19

• Disk Space
• 250GB, 90 full
• Communication
• 10MB connection to USU internet
• Operators
• Systems Administrator - Solaris
• Programmer to build custom utilities Java, C,
  C, Perl
• Software Management and Maintenance - Third Party
  or In house
• Subject Matter Expert - Climate

20
User Needs Assessment Survey Results
18 USU Respondents
21
User Needs Assessment Survey Results
36 CUAHSI Respondents
22
(No Transcript)
23
Software - USU
Please rate each of the following software
packages and programming languages with respect
to how important they are for hydrologic analysis
in your research.
Other Software mentioned SAS - 3 Surfer- 2 R,
Groundwater Vistas, STAMMT-L, HEC-RAS, Adobe
Illustrator, Kaleidagraph, MS SQL Server, ArcIMS,
MapWindow, Macromedia, Minitab, SigmaPlot
24
Software - USU
Please rate each of the following software
packages and programming languages with respect
to how important they are for hydrologic analysis
in your research.
25
Software-CUAHSI Rate the following software
packages and programming languages with respect
to how important they are for hydrologic analysis
in your research
26
Software-CUAHSI Rate the following software
packages and programming languages with respect
to how important they are for hydrologic analysis
in your research

• Other Software Mentioned
• Rockware (2)
• Imagine/IDL (2)
• MySQL (2)
• Perl (2)
• RiverTools
• SWS
• Tcl/Tk(GUI)
• Web Python 2ope
• Visual/Modeling IDL/PV-Ware
• Global Mapper
• TELEMAC
• Virtualization UML/VMware/etc
• PHREEQC
• Aqua Chem
• IPW
• GEMPAK
• GRADS
• Hydrus2D

27
(No Transcript)
28
Please rate each software functionality with
respect to the priority for including this
functionality in a hydrologic information system
- USU
29
(No Transcript)
30
Please rate each software functionality with
respect to the priority for including this
functionality in a hydrologic information system.
31
Independence - USUPlease indicate the following
on a scale of 1-5, where 1not important,
5essential
HIS software should work independently from any
3rd party software
HIS software should work on all computer systems
32
Independence - CUAHSIPlease indicate the
following on a scale of 1-5, where 1not
important, 5essential
HIS software should work on all computer systems
(Windows, Linux, Mac, Unix)
HIS software should leverage commercial software
systems (e.g. ArcGIS, SAS)
HIS should be implemented using open source
software
33
List data standards and file formats that you
think CUAHSI should adopt - USU

• NetCDF
• check the ALMA convention for Land Surface
  Modeling
• Grib
• USGS
• NASA - hdf

34
Are there data for which CUAHSI should define
standards - USU

• Standards are important, but I do not know what
  they all are.
• Streamflow, Precip, Landuse, Topography,
  Landcover
• Unpublished data in technical reports must be
  protected, esp when graduate theses and
  dissertations are involved
• Of course, mostly in terms of denomination of the
  variables. Check ALMA standards as an example.
• Time series of any sort should have a standard
  that controls how they are stored and distributed
  (this is primarily so that qualifying comments or
  metadata are not lost).
• Data should probably be available in a variety of
  export formats.
• EPA storet- have good chemical data AND flow from
  the same sample site. Otherwise it is pretty
  useless.

35
List data standards and file formats that you
think CUAHSI should adopt - CUAHSI

• Time series
• Space time grids
• Some image formats
• Hydrologic Observations
• ISO
• HDF
• NetCDF
• NASA DIF
• GeoTiff
• XML based formats
• At least conversion from difficult data formats
• Flat files
• Data model for time series needs more development
• How should I know? Im just a user.
• Any raster grid supported by ESRI
• Ascii, shapefile, MS Access, XML
• XML, XML, and XML

36
Are there data for which CUAHSI should define
standards - CUAHSI

• Probably
• Transboundary datasets
• Sediment transport
• Domain specific data whatever is going to be
  offered to users
• Adapt existing standards
• In situ observational data such as SCAN network
  data
• Metadata format and ontology structure
• Vector data, raster data, image data

37
USU
38
Rate the ease of access to hydrologic data and
information - CUAHSI
39
National Data - Present Ease of Use
40
USU
Other data mentioned Water Use/Diversion data -
2 ET, Groundwater level, Water Quality/Chemistry,
Energy balance components (latent and sensible
heat)
41
Rate the priority for data inclusion in HIS -
CUAHSI
42
National Data - Priority for HIS
Other data mentioned Water Use/Diversion data -
2 ET, Groundwater level, Water Quality/Chemistry,
Energy balance components (latent and sensible
heat)
43
Other National Datasets you think should be
considered - CUAHSI

• Corps of Engineers Stream stage/discharge
• WRRI Institutes
• Reservoir storage/elevation/chemistry (Corps of
  Engineers, Bureau of Reclamation)
• National orthophotography
• Higher resolution HUCs
• Urban/anthropic/water-related infrastructure
• General geology
• Population density
• Various NRCS/WCC NOHRSC data
• NADP precip chemistry
• Stream sediment data
• Hydrogeologic data (K, Chem, etc.)
• Snow courses
• Vegetation maps
• US Census/population data
• Ecological data/ecoregions
• Agricultural census data

44
Local Datasets that you think should be included
- USU

• Geomorphic/Channel Characteristics, (.shp)
• Fish Distribution and abundance (Excel)
• Other biotic data on streams( Excel)
• Abiotic data on streams (Excel)
• LIS (Gribs)
• U Washington (NetCDF)
• Unidata
• Real time river diversions and reservoir
  elevations (txt)
• Real time water quality monitoring data
• Real Time climate/weather observations (like
  Mesowest)
• Local government records indicating land use
  changes
• US govt Population Census data
• Meteorological and edaphic state variable data
  from CSI loggers
• Precipitation (ASCII, Excel))
• Soil Moisture (ASCII, Excel)
• Soil temperature (excel)
• Soil characteristics (ascii)
• Meteorological data (wind speed, humidity, air
  temperature, solar radiation) (ASCII)

45
Local Datasets that you think should be included
- CUAHSI

• Borehole data geologic electric and geologic
  logs locations
• Seismic reflection lines
• NPDES sites
• Geologic surface profiles with original data
  points
• Groundwater raw water chemistry
• Irrigation diversions
• Pressure, moisture, concentration (SQL)
• USGS FRI Forest growth data
• National rangeland condition data
• US breeding bird survey
• Airborne Lidar filtered bare earth and first
  return
• High resolution orthorectified aerial photographs
• Various mountain datasets
• RAWS other mesonets

• Precipitation isotope data
• Calsil (data system), Cdoc (data system)
• Weather Mesonets
• High level land use
• High resolution topography
• Land management practices
• Water management practices
• Model input for specific watersheds
• Met and flux tower
• Realtime water quality data
• Diversions, water management, water rights
• Water use
• GAP analysis

46
USU
47
(No Transcript)
48
Role for HIS
49
Additional Comments/Suggestions

• Transboundary approach should be included into
  the HIS project (e.g., all watersheds along the
  US/MX border are binational on both surface and
  GW hydrology
• Need tools to easily register raster data at
  different scales (e.g., MODIS, Landsat,
  orthophotos, NED, gridded climate)
• Consider uncertainty
• Consider anthropic influences
• Prioritize ingestion and dissemination of data,
  methods for data visualization, manipulation and,
  analysis
• Need attention to ease of use, intuitive
  interfaces, responsiveness, etc.
• Dont forget the hydrogeologists, hydrochemists,
  and stream geomorphologists
• Is there more interest in accessing unfiltered
  data than model results?
• Each observation needs quality information
  (adequacy of time series data model)
• Priority on simple data model for hydrologic
  observations with derivatives for groundwater,
  streamflow, etc. Priority 2 data fusion and
  assimilation technology
• Needs integrated models, data to models,
  standard models, software for analysis of model
  output and uncertainty