GEOCONNEX
Geoconnex is a system for connecting water data from different data providers via geographic location.
Geoconnex includes
A linked system of web pages about hydrologic features
A persistent identifier service
A web crawler that harvests links between data and hyrdologic features
A free and open water-data-specific search engine
What is Geoconnex?
Geoconnex rests on widespread adoption of metadata best practices, automatically harvesting metadata and indexing data to real-world hydrologic features (e.g. lakes, reservoirs, wells, streams, water distribution systems, monitoring locations). The resulting water-specific search index will be browsable from a common water metadata catalog in both a human and machine-readable format.
See what’s Possible with Geoconnex
The Water Policy Program at the Duke University Nicholas Institute developed River Runner: Linked to show how Geoconnex will make it easy to find water data. This tool builds on Sam Learner’s River Runner for the US, which lets users drop a pin anywhere in the US to trace the nearest river system downstream, by giving users the ability to find and access relevant datasets for each river system.
River Runner: Linked visualizes all available USGS monitoring locations, points of diversion mapped by the Western States Water Council Water Data Exchange, and Water Quality Portal Sites as points displayed along the user’s chosen river system. Users can click on a point to access each dataset through its Geoconnex landing page. Geconnex makes the discovery of these data possible because, in Geoconnex, data is spatially referenced, linking it to real-world locations. These points are connected to the stream network in their proper locations through the USGS Network-Linked Data Index.
Access Geoconnex and a Geoconnex Demo