The Utah Center for Hydrologic Information
The Utah Center for Hydrologic Information and Computing (UCHIC) is developing and advancing the cyberinfrastructure needed to support data-intensive research in the area of hydrology and water resources and to support data collection, analysis, sharing, visualization, and modeling.
About the Utah Center for Hydrologic Information and Computing (UCHIC)
A new era of science is emerging in which new high resolution spatial and temporal datasets are enabling studies that will generate new hydrologic and watershed process understanding. In many cases, scientists are combining existing datasets in new ways to generate new knowledge. UCHIC is establishing a research platform to develop the new cyberinfrastructure necessary to support synthetic research using both new and existing datasets.
Over the next decade, science and engineering research will likely produce more scientific data than has been created over the whole of human history, and new scientific breakthroughs will depend on our ability to access, integrate, and analyze these large datasets.UCHIC is developing new cyberinfrastructure that facilitates new studies into watershed processes and human dimensions of water use and may enable breakthroughs in water management strategies.
Key Research Areas
- Collaboration with state agencies to host and develop watershed and hydrologic information systems, such as the Bear River Watershed Information System ( http://www.bearriverinfo.org ), and the Great Salt Lake Information System ( http://www.greatsaltlakeinfo.org ).
- An advanced data center and platform for development of new cyberinfrastructure comprising a robust set of computer servers with high capacity Internet capabilities.
- Development and operation of high-frequency, continuous monitoring research platforms within multiple watersheds in the state of Utah. Continuous monitoring sites include stream hydrology and water quality, as well as weather stations with soil moisture monitoring.
- Investigating how high-volume, continuous datasets from environmental sensors can be managed using robust, generally available software and database tools.
- Investigating the value of high frequency, continuous datasets in hydrology and water resources management. Example applications include total maximum daily load (TMDL) water quality studies and canal/irrigation management.
- Open source software development in support of water resources and hydrologic data collection, sharing and management.
Software Products
HydroServer
HydroServer is a set of software applications for publishing hydrologic datasets for an experimental watershed or site on the Internet. HydroServer leverages commercial software such as Microsoft SQL Server and ESRI's ArcGIS Server as well as versions that run on more open platforms using Linux and open relational database management systems like MySQL. HydroServer is now being used in production at the CUAHSI Water Data Center.
View HydroServer on CodePlex: http://www.hydroserver.org
Hydroshare
HydroShare is an online collaborative environment for sharing hydrologic data and models aimed at giving hydrologists the cyberinfrastructure needed to innovate and collaborate in research to solve water problems. HydroShare addresses the challenges of sharing data and hydrologic models to support collaboration and reproducible hydrologic science through the publication of hydrologic data and models.
View HydroShare at www.hydroshare.org or in GitHub: https://github.com/hydroshare/
ODM2 and Associated Software
ODM2 is an information model and supporting software ecosystem for feature-based earth observations. ODM2 extends the interoperability of spatially discrete Earth observations derived from sensors and specimens and improves the capture, sharing, and archival these data.
View ODM2 and related software in GitHub: https://github.com/odm2
TauDEM
HydroServer is a set of software applications for publishing hydrologic datasets for an experimental watershed or site on the Internet. HydroServer leverages commercial software such as Microsoft SQL Server and ESRI's ArcGIS Server as well as versions that run on more open platforms using Linux and open relational database management systems like MySQL. HydroServer is now being used in production at the CUAHSI Water Data Center.
View HydroServer on CodePlex: http://www.hydroserver.org
Featured Project: Hydroshare
www.hydroshare.org
Principle Investigators:
David Tarboton
(david.tarboton@usu.edu)
Jeff Horsburgh
(jeff.horsburgh@usu.edu)
Co-Researchers
The Renaissance Computing Institute (RENCI) at Univ. of NC, Chapel Hill; CUAHSI; BYU; Purdue Univ.; U of TX;; Tufts Univ.; U of VA; San Diego Supercomputing Center; U of WA; and the Caktus Group
Project Description
HydroShare is an online collaborative environment for sharing hydrologic data and models aimed at giving hydrologists the cyberinfrastructure needed to innovate and collaborate in research to solve water problems. HydroShare addresses the challenges of sharing data and hydrologic models to support collaboration and reproducible hydrologic science through the publication of hydrologic data and models. With HydroShare, users can:
- share data and models with colleagues
- manage who has access to shared content
- share, access, visualize and manipulate a broad set of hydrologic data types and models
- use the web services API to program automated and client access
- publish data and models to meet the requirements of research project data management plans
- discover and access data and models published by others
- use web apps to visualize, analyze, and run models on data in HydroShare.
The Team
The USU team includes UWRL faculty members (David Tarboton and Jeff Horsburgh), a software engineer (Pabitra Dash), and two graduate students (Tian Gan and Mauriel Ramirez). Dr. Tarboton is the overall project lead and coordinates all work on the project. Collectively, the USU team has designed the overall functionality of the system; determined the way content resources, time series, and geographic raster and multidimensional data are represented in the system; and styled the front end user interface appearance; along with significant work under the hood on many aspects of the system.
HydroShare is a collaborative effort among eleven different organizations: The Utah Water Research Laboratory at Utah State University; The Renaissance Computing Institute (RENCI) at University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; The Consortium of Universities for the Advancement of Hydrologic Science, Inc. (CUAHSI); Brigham Young University, Purdue University, University of Texas; Tufts University; University of Virginia; San Diego Supercomputing Center; University of Washington; and the Caktus Group.