National Ground-Water Monitoring Network Data Portal: Continued Collaboration from Concept to Version 2.0
National Ground-Water Monitoring Network Data Portal: Continued Collaboration from Concept to Version 2.0
Presented on Wednesday, May 7, 2014
The development and implementation of the National Ground-Water Monitoring Network (NGWMN), spearheaded by the Subcommittee on Ground Water (SOGW) of the federal Advisory Committee on Water Information, serves as a shining example of collaboration and cooperation. The Network’s data portal stands as a key product of the collaborative effort, which included groundwater professionals from federal and state government agencies, professional organizations, private sector firms, and academic institutions. The Data Portal facilitates access to groundwater data through one seamless web-based application from data providers in partner agencies. A pilot scale portal was developed by the U.S. Geological Survey’s (USGS) Center for Integrated Data Analytics (CIDA) in 2011, which functioned as a proof of concept for enabling the retrieval of and access to groundwater data on an as-needed basis from multiple, dispersed data providers in a standard format. The system was also designed to allow the data to continue to be housed and managed by participating data providers, who hold the responsibility for data quality and maintenance, while being accessible for the purposes of the Network. The success of this pilot testing led to the rollout of Version 1.0 of the NGWMN Data Portal for wider use, including the addition of data providers as facilitated by the USGS in states with prior data collection and sharing arrangements. Subsequently, the developers at CIDA conducted usability testing in order to inform improvements to the portal and its underlying infrastructure, resulting in the recent release of Version 2.0 (http://cida.usgs.gov/ngwmn). The production portal now features enhanced search and download capabilities as well as improved stability and reliability. In the face of federal government budget appropriation difficulties and other challenges, the SOGW continues to press forward with its multi-sector collaborative approach toward full implementation of the Network, and further improvement of the Data Portal.
Jessica M. Lucido
Center for Integrated Data Analytics, U.S. Geological Survey, Middleton, WI
Jessica Lucido graduated from the University of Illinois in 2008 with a bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering. She then obtained a master's degree in Environmental Engineering at the University of Wisconsin in 2010. She also completed a certificate program in Global Health and focused in the areas of drinking water and wastewater treatment, water chemistry, engineering for the developing world, public health, and sustainable development. Lucido is currently employed by the USGS and works as a Project Manager for the Center for Integrated Data Analytics in Middleton, Wisconsin.
Nathaniel L. Booth
Office of Water Information, U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, VA
Nathaniel Booth holds a B.S. in Civil Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Since 1997 he has worked as a Project Chief and Information Technology Specialist with the U.S. Geological Survey. He has managed development of the National Water Quality Assessment Data Warehouse system including database infrastructure, web-based analytical applications, and web services. Booth is currently building data systems for national mercury research and nutrient runoff modeling and has managed development of the joint USGS/USEPA web services specification to accommodate data sharing between the agencies and is actively involved with the Open Geospatial Consortium data exchange standards.
Daryll Pope
New Jersey Water Science Center, U.S. Geological Survey, Lawrenceville, NJ
Daryll Pope has a B.S. in Watershed Science from Colorado State University and a Master's in Contaminant Hydrology from Oregon Graduate Institute. He has worked on groundwater studies and groundwater modeling throughout his career. Pope has been Groundwater Specialist at USGS New Jersey since 1995 and has been involved with the groundwater monitoring networks of the Science Center. He has been involved in several studies looking at groundwater availability.
William L. Cunningham
Office of Groundwater, U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, VA
Bill Cunningham is the Chief of the U.S. Geological Survey Office of Groundwater. This office oversees the technical and policy aspects of USGS groundwater investigations and data collection activities across the nation. Prior to joining the Office of Groundwater, he worked on groundwater science investigations in the Ohio and North Carolina Water Science Centers. Cunningham also serves as Co-Chair of the Subcommittee on Ground Water for the Federal Advisory Committee on Water Information. He received undergraduate and graduate degrees from The Ohio State University.
Robert P. Schreiber, PE, BCEE, D.WRE
Water Resources, CDM Smith, Boston, MA
Robert Schreiber is a registered professional engineer with more than 39 years of experience in water resource planning and computerized engineering analysis. He graduated from MIT's Civil Engineering Department where he focused on groundwater hydrology and water resource systems analysis. He is a senior technical leader specializing in modeling of groundwater flow and contaminant fate and transport, and serves as a company-wide resource at CDM Smith. Schreiber was recently ASCE's alternate representative to the Federal Advisory Committee on Water Information, and is co-chair of its Subcommittee on Ground Water, focusing on implementation of a National Ground-Water Monitoring Network.
