U.S. Department of the InteriorU.S. Geological Survey

Susan TrapaneseChief of National Water Information SystemApril 17, 2007

Overview of National Water Information System (NWIS)

Nat’l NWISWeb Servers

National Water Quality Laboratory

Water Science Center NWIS servers

Customer

NWIS applicationsservers/clients

National Water Information System Business Components

Products reports tables

graphicsdata files

AK

HI

WA

MT

OR

CA

ID

NVUT

WY

CO

AZ NM

TX

OK

KS

NE

SD

ND

LA

MN

IA

MO

AR

MS AL

TN

KY

WI

IL IN

MI

OH

VA

NC

SC

GA

FL

PR

PA

NY

NJ

MD/DE

New England (MA, CT, RI, VT, NH, ME)

WV

NWIS Water Science Center Installations

NWIS Internal Components

• GWSI: site characteristics, and ground-water water levels and well construction information

• QWDATA: water quality data obtained from field samples that are later analyzed at laboratories

• SWUDS: site-specific water use (withdrawals, conveyances, transfers and returns)

• ADAPS: time-series data from ground-water and surface water continuous monitoring sites

NWIS “External” Components

• NWIS public subsystems for disseminating data and information

• AWUDS: aggregated water use

• NWISWeb: NWIS site-specific water data from 46 WSC installations

NWIS Sitefile

• Site information common to all NWIS systems/components• Identification (site name)

• Physical descriptors (latitude/longitude)

• Political descriptors (State, County)

• Data collection methods (GPS, map)

Ground-Water Site Inventory - GWSI

• Well construction

• Ground-water levels

• Well discharge

• Geohydrology and aquifer hydraulics

• Use of water

*** Potentially 500 descriptive data elements

Quality of Water - QWDATA

• Physical properties - pH, specific conductance

• Inorganic constituents

• Organic constituents

• Trace metals

• Biological – tissue contaminant data

• Sediment size and concentration

Water-Use Data System - WUDS

• Site-specific water-use data (SWUDS)• Stores measurements and estimates of water use

by individual users

• Tracks water movement from site to site

• Ancillary data can be stored (power generation, quantities of acres irrigated)

• Aggregate water-use data (AWUDS)• Data aggregated by county, hydrologic unit, and

aquifer

• Compiled for “Estimated Use of Water in the United States” http://water.usgs.gov/wateruse/

Automated Data-Processing System - ADAPS

• Most types of continuous time-series data • Streamflow and stage

• Lake and reservoir stage

• Water-quality automated monitor data

• Ground-water levels

• Precipitation

• Stream peak-flow data

NWIS Internet/Web System - NWISWeb

Activated in 2000, replaced older system

Access to 100’s of millions of pieces of historical and real-time data

NWISWeb aggregates most of the NWIS WSC data into one national database accessible through one web site

Receives over 20 million data requests per month

-- NWIS Installation

-- NWISWeb Web Server Node Draft-10/12/2004

NWIS “Network”

NN AA DD

NNationalational AAggregateggregate DDatabaseatabase

http://waterdata.usgs.gov/

Secure Secure RepositoryRepository

Public “View”Public “View”

46 NWIS hosts

What is NWISWeb?

NWISWeb Update Frequency

Data is pushed from each NWIS database server on a scheduled basis

• Manual or multi-step process:• Annually for QW analyses

• Automated process configurable by each district:• Daily for GWSI discrete water levels from wells• Multiple times a day for ADAPS continuous daily values • Daily for site information, measurements and peak

streamflow• Real-time data is transmitted to NWISWeb within minutes of

being processed by the district office and is regarded as provisional and subject to revision

• Customizations for additional page content

USGS NWISWeb Database

935Real-time ground water

665,000Peak discharges (floods)

69.6 millionWater quality analyses

4.4 millionWater quality samples

7.8 millionGround-water levels

272.2 millionDaily values

9,915Real-time sites

1.5 millionTotal monitoring sites

USGS NWISWeb Daily Values

11.4 millionWater Levels in Wells

21.0 millionOther

5.0 millionSpecific Conductance

11.3 millionTemperatures

1.5 millionpH

26.6 millionStage

195.4 millionDischarge

Web Access to USGS Hydrologic Data History of monthly requests to NWISWeb for data successfully fulfilled, in millions35

30

25

20

15

10

5

02001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006

Public AccessBased on Replication

NWIS-RT

LRGS

WWW

LRGS

WWW

WWW

NWIS-RT

Menlo Park

Sioux Falls

Reston

NWIS-RT

• Ensures availability of real time (stream flow) data to the public

• Handles transfer of real time data when a WSC NWIS server is down• WSC may have to shut down due to an

approaching hurricane or tropical storm

• Allows information to continue to flow during upgrades to district server’s hardware and software

NWIS-RT: Real Time Availability

NWIS Water Data Not in NWISWeb

• Well completion and production information

• Water-use information (aggregate water- use available at http://water.usgs.gov/watuse/)

Useful Links to NWIS

• NWIS data via web http://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/

• List of water quality parameters available from NWIS via NWISWeb http://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/help?parameters_help

• NWISWeb Fact Sheet http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/fs-128-02/