WaDE: Using Web-Services, XML and GIS to Share Water Data

Whether addressing population growth, national security, drought, climate change, or meeting our growing energy needs, questions surrounding water availability in the West will only increase and become more important in the coming years. The Water Data Exchange (WaDE) is a project initiated to assist state water agencies to answer these kinds of local and national water availability questions more easily, more sustainably, and more cost effectively, including the availability of groundwater. In 2011 the Western States Water Council (WSWC), in coordination with the Western Governors’ Association (WGA), the DOE National Laboratories, and the Western States Federal Agency Support Team (WestFAST), initiated the WaDE project to enable the exchange of water planning, water use and water allocation data between state water agencies, federal agencies, and the public. The goals of the project include the establishment of a governance structure, the evaluation of the current capabilities and methods within the states, the design of a common format (i.e. data schema) that specifically targets derived water data products and/or water-quantity type information, database and web service design and development, and implementation within state IT environments. WaDE employs an innovative, distributed data framework, wherein owners can control and maintain datasets locally, while making them discoverable via a central web mapping application using RESTful web services. The data are transferred as requested using platform-independent eXtensible Markup Language (XML) and can be incorporated directly into other models or products. WaDE’s implementation will dramatically increase the availability of water quantity-related information, both from state and eventually federal partners. It will also directly support national water security efforts and better decision-making by those agencies that are pursuing integrated water resource management. The project itself serves as a model for other parties interested in developing and sharing specific datasets using a distributed approach.