Developing an Upper Colorado Drought Information System using the CUAHSI Hydrologic Information System
Location
Eccles Conference Center
Event Website
http://water.usu.edu/
Start Date
3-29-2011 11:00 AM
End Date
3-29-2011 11:20 AM
Description
The Upper Colorado Drought Information System, an integration of information science and hydrology, is being developed to provide access to drought related hydrological and metrological data to stakeholders and local water users. A large number of the stakeholders the the Upper Colorado River Basin (UCRB) having limited capability to access science-based drought information tools, which often hinders their use of best available information on future water availability in planning and decision-making. This Drought Information System is being built using Consortium of Universities for the Advancement of Hydrologic Science, Inc. (CUAHSI) Hydrologic Information System (HIS) tools (e.g. HydroServer and HydroDesktop) to organize and publish streamflow, precipitation, reservoir storage, and snow water equivalent data at different sites in the UCRB. These variables are important inputs to equations used in the calculation of drought index values. Development of prototype web services for agency data (NWIS, SNOTEL, USBR, NCDC, SNODAS) establishes better access to the data, and standardized WaterML data transmission format is key to the interoperability of system components. As a data processing step for drought index calculation, half-monthly and monthly aggregations of the index calculation input variables are created. Additionally, spatial interpolation methods have been applied to calculate spatially aggregated values for droughts index input variables at the 10-digit HUC (Hydrologic Unit Code) level. This enables drought index calculation for any HUC 10 area in the UCRB. WaterOneFlow web services (part of the HydroServer toolset) are used to publish these temporally and spatially integrated and interpolated data. All of the published data can be downloaded and visualized using other HIS tools such as, HydroDesktop. Thus, this study contributes to the improvement of hydrologic information systems as well as enables stakeholders to access reliable science-based drought related data.
Developing an Upper Colorado Drought Information System using the CUAHSI Hydrologic Information System
Eccles Conference Center
The Upper Colorado Drought Information System, an integration of information science and hydrology, is being developed to provide access to drought related hydrological and metrological data to stakeholders and local water users. A large number of the stakeholders the the Upper Colorado River Basin (UCRB) having limited capability to access science-based drought information tools, which often hinders their use of best available information on future water availability in planning and decision-making. This Drought Information System is being built using Consortium of Universities for the Advancement of Hydrologic Science, Inc. (CUAHSI) Hydrologic Information System (HIS) tools (e.g. HydroServer and HydroDesktop) to organize and publish streamflow, precipitation, reservoir storage, and snow water equivalent data at different sites in the UCRB. These variables are important inputs to equations used in the calculation of drought index values. Development of prototype web services for agency data (NWIS, SNOTEL, USBR, NCDC, SNODAS) establishes better access to the data, and standardized WaterML data transmission format is key to the interoperability of system components. As a data processing step for drought index calculation, half-monthly and monthly aggregations of the index calculation input variables are created. Additionally, spatial interpolation methods have been applied to calculate spatially aggregated values for droughts index input variables at the 10-digit HUC (Hydrologic Unit Code) level. This enables drought index calculation for any HUC 10 area in the UCRB. WaterOneFlow web services (part of the HydroServer toolset) are used to publish these temporally and spatially integrated and interpolated data. All of the published data can be downloaded and visualized using other HIS tools such as, HydroDesktop. Thus, this study contributes to the improvement of hydrologic information systems as well as enables stakeholders to access reliable science-based drought related data.
https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/runoff/2011/AllAbstracts/5