Nationwide Groundwater Monitoring in Other Countries – Leveraging Lessons Learned and the Power of Collaboration
Presented on Wednesday, March 18, 2015
Robert P. Schreiber, PE, BCEE, D.WRE1, Nathaniel L. Booth2, Boyan brodaric3 and Jessica M. Lucido4, (1)Water Resources, CDM, Cambridge, MA, (2)Office of Water Information, U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, VA, (3)Geological Survey of Canada, Ottawa, ON, Canada, (4)Center for Integrated Data Analytics, U.S. Geological Survey, Middleton, WI
While the United States continues efforts toward full implementation of its National Groundwater Monitoring Network (NGWMN), several other countries have completed various stages of their nationwide networks. The United States effort, led by the Subcommittee on Ground Water (SOGW, of the federal Advisory Committee on Water Information, or ACWI) and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and its Center for Integrated Data Analytics (CIDA), has already benefitted from significant interaction and collaboration with other countries, and vice versa. This has been facilitated by participation in international groups, including the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC), which is committed to establishing and promoting consensus driven standards for open data exchange and sharing.
To demonstrate the progress made to date, an overview of the international efforts will be provided, to describe the foundation upon which groundwater monitoring networks are being designed and implemented within an overall “open geospatial data” approach. The Groundwater Mark-up Language (GWML) forms the basis of the first example, which was developed in collaboration between Canada and the U.S. and is now used by the NGWMN. A second example is the development of the Water Mark-up Language standard for water time-series data by the OGC’s Hydrology Domain Working Group, which has also been adopted by the NGWMN for groundwater levels.
Additionally, a “tour around the world” of groundwater monitoring networks will be presented, serving as the basis for describing how the NGWMN efforts can benefit even further from lessons learned by other countries, as well as providing insight into ways that the U.S. and Canada can foster continued collaboration in order to improve the sharing of data internationally. The examples will be drawn from different countries, with each example focusing on a key aspect of the theme of collaboration and lessons-learned.
Robert P. Schreiber, PE, BCEE, D.WRE
Water Resources, CDM, Cambridge, MA
Mr. Schreiber has over 34 years of experience in water resources engineering and computerized engineering analysis. He is a senior technical leader specializing in groundwater flow and contaminant studies, and serves as a company-wide resource in this area. He has concentrated on the application of analytical techniques to problems in groundwater hydrology and water resource management. Mr. Schreiber currently serves as the ASCE representative on the federal Advisory Committee on Water Information, and as co-chair of its Subcommittee on Ground Water -- which is spearheading design, piloting, and eventual implementation of a National Groundwater Monitoring Network in the U.S.
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.
Boyan brodaric
Geological Survey of Canada, Ottawa, ON, Canada
Boyan Brodaric is a research scientist at the Geological Survey of Canada. His research interests include geospatial interoperability with a particular focus on semantics for the geosciences and hydrology. He is also involved in the development of international data standards in these domains, and leads the Groundwater Information Network, a national online portal for Canadian groundwater information.
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.
