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Title: Southwest Watershed Research Center Data Access Project 1851

Author
item Nichols, Mary
item ANSON, E. - ZARDICK COMPUTING

Submitted to: Water Resources Research
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 10/11/2007
Publication Date: 2/26/2008
Citation: Nichols, M.H., Anson, E. 2008. Southwest Watershed Research Center Data Access Project. Water Resources Research. Vol. 44, W05S03, doi:10.1029/2006WR005665.

Interpretive Summary: The American Geophysical Union has a new thrust to make high-quality data available for research by publishing metadata for a data set that will be available on the web in an AGU-approved web site. This manuscript presents an overview of the USDA-ARS Southwest Watershed Research Center's web-based data access project. The goal of the project is to promote analyses and interpretations of historic and current data by improving data access. Access to hydrologic data, including rainfall and runoff data, collected on experimental watersheds operated by the Agricultural Research Service in southern Arizona is provided through a public website (http://tucson.ars.ag.gov/dap). The website was released to the public in October 2003, and since that time the online data access website has received more that 4500 visitors.

Technical Abstract: Hydrologic data, including rainfall and runoff data, have been collected on experimental watersheds operated by the Agricultural Research Service in southern Arizona since the 1950s. These data are of national and international importance and make up the most comprehensive semi-arid watershed dataset in the world. The USDA-ARS Southwest Watershed Research Center has recently developed an electronic data processing system that includes an online interface (http://tucson.ars.ag.gov/dap) to provide public access to the data. The goal of the system is to promote analyses and interpretations of historic and current data by improving data access. Data are collected from sensors in the field and transmitted to computers in the office. The data are then processed, quality checked, and made available to users via the Internet. The publicly accessible part of the system consists of an interactive website, which provides an interface to the data, and a relational database, which is used to process, store, and manage data. The system was released to the public in October 2003, and since that time the online data access website has received more that 4500 visitors.