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ARS Home » Midwest Area » Columbia, Missouri » Cropping Systems and Water Quality Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #212693
Title: Sustaining the Earth's Watersheds-Agricultural Research Data System: Data development, user interaction, and operations management

Author
item Sadler, Edward
item Steiner, Jean
item CHEN, JIN-SONG - STATE OF OKLAHOMA
item Wilson, Greg
item Ross, John
item Oster, Teri
item James, David
item Vandenberg, Bruce
item Hatfield, Jerry

Submitted to: Journal of Soil and Water Conservation
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 6/9/2008
Publication Date: 11/1/2008
Citation: Sadler, E.J., Steiner, J.L., Chen, J., Wilson, G.J., Ross, J.D., Oster, T., James, D.E., Vandenberg, B.C., Hatfield, J.L. 2008. Sustaining the Earth's Watersheds-Agricultural Research Data System: Data development, user interaction, and operations management. Journal of Soil and Water Conservation. 63(6):577-589.

Interpretive Summary: To support the Agricultural Research Service’s (ARS) Conservation Effects Assessment Project (CEAP) in assessing USDA conservation programs and practices on soil and water quality, a publicly available web-based watershed data system was developed, named Sustaining the Earth’s Watersheds, Agricultural Research Data System (STEWARDS). STEWARDS organizes and documents soil, water, climate, land-management, and socio-economic data from multiple watersheds across the United States. STEWARDS is a data delivery system with a web-based graphical interface, allowing users to search ARS watershed data by location, time, and topic. Through this interface, the system will facilitate 1) researchers in obtaining ARS’ historic watershed data for hydrological studies; 2) modelers in retrieving measured data over extensive time periods for model calibration and validation in watershed assessments to support the CEAP project; and 3) watershed managers and a wide array of partners and stakeholders in accessing long-term data to support decision-making for selecting effective conservation practices.

Technical Abstract: To support the Agricultural Research Service’s Conservation Effects Assessment Project (CEAP) in assessing USDA conservation programs and practices on soil and water quality, a publicly available web-based watershed data system, called Sustaining the Earth’s Watersheds, Agricultural Research Data System (STEWARDS), was developed to provide data search, viewing, and downloading of watershed research data. The data system organizes and documents soil, water, climate, land-management, and socio-economic data from multiple watersheds across the US. This paper describes the STEWARDS data contained within the system, user interface, and how it would deliver watershed data. STEWARDS is a data delivery system with a GIS interface, using space, time, and topic as the key fields for searching the extensive ARS watershed data. Through this interface, the system will facilitate 1) researchers in obtaining ARS’ historic watershed data for hydrological studies; 2) modelers in retrieving measured data over extensive time periods for model calibration and validation in watershed assessments to support the conservation effects assessment program; and 3) watershed managers and a wide array of partners and stakeholders in accessing long term data to support decision-making for selecting effective conservation practices.