Hydrologic Data Sources
By David R. Maidment
Center for Research in Water Resources
20 February 2007
USGS National Water
Information System (NWIS)
General introduction http://water.usgs.gov/
Real time data (15 minute streamflow for last 31 days) http://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/rt
Streamflow and lake level data (daily data up to the present) http://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/sw
Streamflow measurements (individual gagings at sites) http://nwis.waterdata.usgs.gov/usa/nwis/measurements
Peak flow data (floods) http://nwis.waterdata.usgs.gov/usa/nwis/peak
Groundwater data (observations on wells) http://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/gw
Water quality data (instantaneous measurements) http://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/qw
USGS Measurement sites (descriptive information on gaging, sampling sites on streams, wells) http://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/inventory
Water Use (5 year estimates of water use by counties) http://water.usgs.gov/watuse/
Unit Values (15 min data historically). http://ida.water.usgs.gov/ida/ This is a new service unveiled on Feb 9, 2007, that enables you to get streamflow data at 15 minute intervals. Its very good for small sites where floods pass quickly and 15 minute data are much more instructive than daily data.
NHDPlus 1:100,000 GIS vector and raster data files for National Hydrography Dataset http://www.horizon-systems.com/nhdplus/
USGS Streamgaging Sites GIS data http://water.usgs.gov/GIS/dsdl/USGS_Streamgages-NHD_Locations_GEODB.zip Gage sites file with locations right on NHDPlus. Additional descriptive attributes. Very good for space-time studies of streamflow data by combination with NWIS. For tutorial on how to use NHDPlus and gage sites file, see http://www.ce.utexas.edu/prof/maidment/giswr2006/Ex5/Ex52006.doc
EPA Storet
(Storage and Retrieval) system http://www.epa.gov/storet/dw_home.html
This site contains water quality and biological data collected to support the
Clean Water Act. Easy to use but has
gaps in its coverage of the country (including
NCDC Climate Data Online http://cdo.ncdc.noaa.gov/CDO/cdo Hourly, daily, monthly and annual weather and climate data at point observation sites. Tutorial on how to use Climate Data Online:
http://www.ce.utexas.edu/prof/maidment/gradhydro2005/docs/ncdcdata.doc
Ameriflux http://public.ornl.gov/ameriflux/ Flux of water, heat and carbon between the land surface and atmosphere.
NCDC Radar Rainfall Archive and viewer http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/radar/radarresources.html
USDA NRCS National
Water and
General introduction http://www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/
Soil and Climate Analysis network http://www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/scan/ Soil water balance at point locations
Snotel http://www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/snow/ Snow data from individual sites
NOAA Soil Moisture Monitoring http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/soilmst/w.shtml
(maps produced from their numerical weather forecasting model)
NOAA
Hydrometeorological Design Studies Center
http://www.weather.gov/oh/hdsc/currentpf.htm
Precipitation frequency atlases for the
National Operational Hydrologic Remote Sensing Center http://www.nohrsc.nws.gov/ Maps of snow surveys and forecasts.
National Drought Mitigation Center http://drought.unl.edu/
Drought Monitor http://drought.unl.edu/dm/monitor.html Weekly drought severity maps
TRACS water
quality data for
WIID Texas Water Information Integration and Dissemination (WIID) http://wiid.twdb.state.tx.us/ Well stratigraphy and water observations, water use forecasts, reservoir contents.
Evaporation and Precipitation by 1 degree quads http://hyper20.twdb.state.tx.us/Evaporation/evap.html Useful for evaluating reservoir evaporation from an open water surface.
Gridded Weather and Climate Data
Daymet http://www.daymet.org/ NCAR Gridded historical climate in daily time steps for 1 km grid. Can be queried by point locations. Tutorial on Weather Downloader (an ArcGIS application that downloads weather data for point feature classes) http://www.ce.utexas.edu/prof/maidment/giswr2006/Ex6/Ex62006.htm
COMET http://www.comet.ucar.edu/ Cooperative Program for Operational Meteorology, Education and Training – distance learning education about weather and climate
Numerical Weather Prediction Model descriptions and instructional tutorials http://www.meted.ucar.edu/nwp/pcu2/ (Requires a login) Describes variables calculated in different weather models.
NCEP National
Centers for Environmental Prediction (numerical weather forecasting for the
NCAR Community Data
Portal http://cdp.ucar.edu/home/home.htm
Research data from
NOMADS NOAA Operational Model Archive and Distribution System http://nomads.ncdc.noaa.gov/ Access to historical weather model data
THREDDS http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/projects/THREDDS/ Thematic Realtime Environmental Distributed Data Services – web services technology for weather and climate data
THREDDS data server at Unidata http://motherlode.ucar.edu:8080/thredds/catalog.html Tutorial on how to use this server http://www.ce.utexas.edu/prof/maidment/GradHydro2007/docs/THREDDS.htm#unidata
THREDDS data server
at NCDC
http://nomads.ncdc.noaa.gov:8085/thredds/catalog.html
Tutorial on how to use this server http://www.ce.utexas.edu/prof/maidment/GradHydro2007/docs/THREDDS.htm#ncdc
Remote Sensing Data
MOVAS http://g0dup05u.ecs.nasa.gov/Giovanni/ MODIS Online Visualization and Analysis System – NASA data from the MODIS satellite sensor
NASA Atmospheric Science Data Center http://eosweb.larc.nasa.gov/ (includes new netCDF data products)
Coastal Data
NOAA Tides and Currents http://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/
Tides Online http://tidesonline.nos.noaa.gov/ Data on current and historical tidal levels. (6 min to monthly data at some locations)
TCOON (Texas Coastal Ocean Observing Network) http://lighthouse.tamucc.edu/TCOON/
Global Data
GEMStat http://www.gemstat.org/ Global water quality data and statistics