Type: How-To's, Reports
Categories: Educational Materials, Technical
The guidance provided in this document is designed to address a critical barrier to understanding and effectively managing surface and groundwater (SWGW) interactions in Texas: legacy data and legacy systems. Data held in legacy systems are difficult to find, access, and integrate with other data, and because of this, these data are rarely used in decision-making processes. Improving the findability and accessibility of legacy data is a foundational step in improving water management decisions about SWGW interactions in Texas. However, this same guidance can be applied to address challenges with legacy data and systems for a variety of other applications.
Type: How-To's, Reports
Categories: Educational Materials, Technical
In 2018, water experts and stakeholders in Texas came together to take the first steps toward water data modernization at a workshop at the University of Texas in Austin. The goal of the workshop was to develop a vision for “an ideal water data system for Texas.” The system envisioned in that workshop was the jumping-off point for a collaborative project between the Internet of Water (IoW) and the Texas Water Development Board (TWDB) to develop the Texas Water Data Hub. This data hub will give data users easy access to many different types of standardized water data in one place. The hub will support real-time decision-making, enable the identification of opportunities to improve water security and provide decision-makers with a more complete picture of the water cycle in Texas.
As part of this project, the IoW has developed the following best practices and recommendations to support the development of the Texas Water Data Hub. While this document was developed for the Texas Water Data Hub it is broadly applicable and can be used to support the development of other hubs in the future.
Type: How-To's, Reports
Categories: Educational Materials, Technical
The developing Texas Water Data Hub represents a first step in realizing the vision for “an ideal water data system for Texas” that allows those tackling water problems timely access to relevant data about water in Texas. The Internet of Water (IoW) shares a similar vision but is applied across the United States. As such, the collaborative project between the IoW and the TWDB lays the groundwork for the Texas Water Data Hub to interconnect with the broader internet of water, including the water data systems of federal agencies and neighboring states.
Currently, the Texas Water Data Hub provides an online location where metadata regarding many water datasets can be searched, directing users to where data of interest can be accessed. As part of this project, the IoW has developed the following implementation plan for the continued development of Texas Water Data Hub capabilities that will serve to make its data findable, accessible, and interoperable with data from other hubs within the internet of water. While this document was developed for the Texas Water Data Hub it is broadly applicable and can be used to support the development of other hubs in the future.
Type: Presentations
Categories: Technical
The Open Geospatial Consortium’s family of API standards are helping make geospatial data on the web more accessible and interoperable. This presentation introduces pygeoapi – a Python server implementation of OGC’s standards. Kyle Onda, from the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy’s Center for Geospatial Solutions, walks through how to set up an API endpoint and discusses several ideas for how to use this flexible, open-source API framework for water data applications.
Type: Documents, Reports
Categories: Policy Documents
Only two states, New Mexico and California, have existing water data legislation: New Mexico’s 2019 Water Data Act and California’s 2016 Open and Transparent Water Data Act. Oregon’s legislature also passed funding packages in 2021 for its water agencies to design a new integrated water data portal. This policy brief compares processes, outcomes, and costs associated with the legislation and funding for water data initiatives in New Mexico, California, and Oregon.
Type: Presentations
Categories:
The expansion of permanent cropland and continuing growth of urban communities are increasing demands on California’s limited water resources. These conditions are driving innovation to improve water risk management due to volatile hydrology. Urban agencies and Central Valley farmers regularly transact in a water market that is under new competitive pressure as participants manage this new normal. To provide greater market transparency, WestWater Research and Nasdaq have developed the NQH2O index which provides a weekly snapshot of California water prices. Market participants rely on the index as an informational tool to understand current prices in California’s spot water market. In addition, farmers are beginning to acquire futures contracts settling against the index to offset the financial risks of water market price volatility. In this presentation, WestWater staff will introduce California’s water market, the NQH2O index, and the new risk management tool of water futures contracts.
Type: Blogs
Categories: Blog, Educational Materials, Technical
It's important to be able to share data in ways that are easy for scientists and water professionals to analyze and for developers to use to make tools and communication materials. In this blog, Kyle Onda describes practices that the Internet of Water Initiative at the Lincoln Institute's Center for Geospatial Solutions recommends for sharing geospatial vector data.
Type: Blogs
Categories: Blog
Through our start-up period, we learned that the strength of the Internet of Water is its capacity to unite independent organizations and agencies around the common goal of modernizing water data infrastructure in the US. Now, as the IoW enters its growth phase, we are scaling up from a project of the Nicholas Institute at Duke to a coalition of organizations working together with government partners to enact the vision of the Internet of Water.
Type: Documents
Categories: Policy Documents
To improve decision-making and ensure equitable, sustainable, and resilient water resources protection, development and management, the United States must build an effective Internet of Water. These four actions will make an Internet of Water possible: developing a water data-sharing pilot grant program at EPA, creating a corresponding water data-sharing grant program at USGS, establishing a new water data-sharing framework at USGS, and encouraging federal agencies to adopt Internet of Water Principles.
Type: Blogs
Categories: Blog
The Colorado River Basin is experiencing a historic drought. Many states in the basin are facing increasing variability in rain and snow patterns, and municipal water needs and infrastructure are more complex than ever. Given these challenges, state water budgeting is also becoming increasingly complex. To promote transparency and collaboration among CO River Basin States, the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions’ Water Policy Program developed the Water Budget Navigator tool as part of the Internet of Water start-up project. This tool builds on the Internet of Water start-up project’s Coming to Terms tool, which seeks to promote a shared vocabulary of water terminology and tracks definitions, synonyms, and homonyms of water-related terms used by public agencies and private entities.
The Water Budget Navigator is a web application that allows users to compare the water budgeting and water use estimation frameworks used by water resources agencies in the Colorado River Basin states (California, New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, and Utah).