Using Every Drop of Information: the Open Water Data Initiative
In many places, America’s water resources are being stressed by increasing demand for water, decreasing water supplies, and reduced water quality. Large areas of the country are vulnerable to both droughts and floods. These stresses can be heightened by changes in land use, population growth, and climate change.
Welcome to the 2015 Briefing Series for Members of Congress and Staff
This year's theme is "Start with Science"
First in the 2015 series
Using Every Drop of Information: the Open Water Data Initiative
In many places, America’s water resources are being stressed by increasing demand for water, decreasing water supplies, and reduced water quality. Large areas of the country are vulnerable to both droughts and floods. These stresses can be heightened by changes in land use, population growth, and climate change.
Come learn how the USGS and its partners are working to make currently fragmented water information discoverable and inter-connected through a national water data framework.
Date: July 31, 2015
Time: 11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m
Speakers
Angela Adams
Bureau of Reclamation
Steve Kopp
Environmental Systems Research Institute
Sara Larsen
Western States Water Council
`PowerPoints:
- Angela Adams - Open Water Data Initiative: Drought Use Case Study (978 KB)
- Steve Kopp - Open Water Data Initiative, an Esri perspective (11.3 MB)
- Sara Larsen - Water Data Exchange (WaDE) Project
Speaker Biographies
Angela Adams
Angela Adams works in the Bureau of Reclamation's Lower Colorado Region and currently leads the Open Water Data Initiative Drought Use Case Team, which is exploring data-driven insights on drought in the lower Colorado River basin. She also supports a Lower Colorado Region pilot project to make river datasets publically accessible in interoperable and machine-readable formats. Over the past 10 years she has been responsible for developing the technology transfer and business development programs for the Bureau’s Water Quality Improvement Center, which is the nation’s only pilot-scale water research center located on the Lower Colorado River. That water source serves more than 20 million people in Arizona, California, Nevada and Northern Mexico. She holds a master’s degree in Business Administration.
Steve Kopp
Steve Kopp is a Senior Product Engineer for Spatial Analysis in the Software Products division at Esri where he has been involved in creating software tools and products for spatial data display and analysis for over 25 years. His research interests include spatial modeling applications in water resources, terrain analysis, optimal site selection, and spatial statistical methods. Recent efforts have focused on web services for terrain and hydrologic analysis applied to national and global databases. He holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Geography.
Sara Larsen
Sara G. Larsen is the Water Data Exchange (WaDE) Program Manager for the Western States Water Council (WSWC). WaDE is an initiative undertaken by the WSWC, the Western Governors’ Association (WGA) and the Western Federal Agency Support Team (WestFAST) to encourage and provide a framework for state water agencies to share important water data related to planning, water use, water availability, etc. with each other and with the public. Before joining the WSWC, she worked at Los Alamos National Laboratory in the Energy and Infrastructure Analysis Group, which models water and energy infrastructure during hazard events and scenarios. She has also worked for the State of Utah’s Division of Water Resources in their Geographic Information Systems (GIS) section. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Geography/GIS and a masters degree in Civil Engineering in Water Resources, from the University of Utah.