Webcam at USGS Streamgage 01437500 Neversink River at Godeffroy, NY.
Visit Water Data For the Nation to get current data for this site.
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Substantial advances in water science, together with emerging breakthroughs in technical and computational capabilities, have led the USGS to develop a Next Generation Water Observing System (NGWOS). The USGS NGWOS will provide real-time data on water quantity and quality in more affordable and rapid ways than previously possible, and in more locations.
USGS's NGWOS will integrate fixed and mobile monitoring assets in the water, ground, and air, including innovative webcams and new ground- and space-based sensors. When fully implemented, the NGWOS will provide high temporal and spatial resolution data on streamflow, evapotranspiration, snowpack, soil moisture, water quality, groundwater/surface-water connections, stream velocity distribution, sediment transport, and water use. USGS partner and stakeholder needs are helping to inform the NGWOS design so that data and information generated by the NGWOS will help them anticipate water shortages more accurately and react to water hazards more quickly.
An NGWOS pilot in the Delaware River Basin is providing an opportunity to develop the NGWOS in a nationally important, complex interstate river system.
A western basin—the Upper Colorado River Basin—was selected for inclusion in the NGWOS in November 2019. This basin is providing an opportunity to improve regional water prediction in snowmelt dominated systems.
The Illinois River Basin is being added to the NGWOS (2020) to fill monitoring gaps and data needs to advance nutrient delivery and harmful algal bloom prediction.
NGWOS data will support advanced modeling tools to provide state-of-the-art flood and drought forecasts, drive emergency- and water-management decision support systems, and address difficult questions such as:
The NGWOS aims to foster innovation and development of monitoring technologies and methodologies to make data more affordable and more rapidly available. Monitoring innovations also are expected to lead to more types of data at higher temporal and spatial frequencies. Innovation testing sites will be identified on main-stem streams and small streams within NGWOS watersheds. These locations will provide a platform for rigorous, transparent, and reproducible testing of emerging and innovative monitoring technologies by the USGS and other entities. Technologies of interest include radar and image velocimetry for remotely sensing surface-water velocities, drone-mounted ground-penetrating radar for measuring bathymetry for improving flow estimates, new sensors for monitoring continuous water-quality and suspended sediment, and others. The application and benefits of these innovations will extend beyond the NGWOS watersheds and be incorporated into routine operation of USGS monitoring networks.
The USGS has a nearly 140-year history of providing reliable and relevant scientific information to decision makers. Today (2019), the USGS operates and maintains real-time, continuous monitoring networks nationwide consisting of more than 8,200 streamflow-gaging stations, 2,100 water-quality stations, 1,700 groundwater-level monitoring wells, and 1,000 precipitation stations. USGS hydrographers make tens of thousands of discrete water measurements each year. Requests for USGS data exceed 670 million annually. Yet, the current National Streamflow Network—while providing data at critical locations—covers less than 1 percent of the Nation’s streams and rivers. This sampling density helps to inform current and past water conditions (see, for example, WaterWatch) but is not sufficient for predicting interactions between climate, surface water, groundwater and soil moisture across large watersheds.
From the perspectives of science, cost, and operations and maintenance, it is not necessary or feasible to collect data at a high spatial density throughout all large watersheds and aquifers. A more practical approach is to develop intensive monitoring networks in a small number of medium-sized watersheds (10,000-20,000 square miles) and underlying aquifers that are representative of larger regions across the Nation. Data from these intensively monitored watersheds can then be used in combination with data from existing monitoring networks to construct and reduce the uncertainty in advanced models to fill in data and knowledge gaps in regional and national water assessments and predictions. At present (2019), it is anticipated that the NGWOS will include at least 10 intensively monitored medium-sized watersheds, selected with input from USGS stakeholders, to represent a wide range of environmental, hydrologic and landscape settings across the Nation. At least one basin in each of 18 water resource regions will be identified for potential NGWOS consideration.
The USGS information systems for water-data management and delivery are being transformed and modernized as part of the NGWOS to accommodate new data and sensor networks, allow for integration with water data from multiple agencies and sectors, display observational data uncertainty, and enable data and analytical products to feed directly into models. Data telemetry systems also are being updated to allow for two-way communications and more frequent transmission of data to the internet.
Below are other science projects associated with NGWOS.
Below are data or web applications associated with NGWOS.
WaterWatch displays maps, graphs, and tables describing real-time, recent, and past streamflow conditions for the United States, including flood and droughts. Real-time information generally is updated on an hourly basis.
Below are multimedia items associated with NGWOS.
Conceptual illustration showing how USGS's Next Generation Water Observing System will enhance the spatial and temporal monitoring of water within reference basins and larger hydrologic regions in all U.S. states and territories.
Webcam at USGS Streamgage 01437500 Neversink River at Godeffroy, NY.
Visit Water Data For the Nation to get current data for this site.
Webcam at USGS Streamgage 01437500 Neversink River at Godeffroy, NY.
Visit Water Data For the Nation to get current data for this site.
Webcam at USGS Streamgage 09071750 Colorado River above Glenwood Springs, CO.
Visit Water Data For the Nation to get current data for this site.
Webcam at USGS Streamgage 09071750 Colorado River above Glenwood Springs, CO.
Visit Water Data For the Nation to get current data for this site.
Webcam at USGS Streamgage 09095500 Colorado River near Cameo, CO.
Visit Water Data For the Nation to get current data for this site.
Webcam at USGS Streamgage 09095500 Colorado River near Cameo, CO.
Visit Water Data For the Nation to get current data for this site.
Webcam at USGS Streamgage 01463500 Delaware River at Trenton NJ.
Visit the site page to access data for this site.
Webcam at USGS Streamgage 01463500 Delaware River at Trenton NJ.
Visit the site page to access data for this site.
Webcam at USGS Streamgage 01462000 Delaware River at Lambertville, NJ.
Visit Water Data For the Nation to get current data for this site.
Webcam at USGS Streamgage 01462000 Delaware River at Lambertville, NJ.
Visit Water Data For the Nation to get current data for this site.
Briefing sheet for the Next Generation Water Observing System—Illinois River Basin pilot.
Briefing sheet for the Next Generation Water Observing System—Illinois River Basin pilot.
This animation shows the changing conditions of USGS streamgages from October 1, 2019 to September 30, 2020. The conditions shown range from the driest condition seen at a gage (red open circles) to the wettest (blue closed circles). There is also a purple ring added to indicate gages that are flooding.
This animation shows the changing conditions of USGS streamgages from October 1, 2019 to September 30, 2020. The conditions shown range from the driest condition seen at a gage (red open circles) to the wettest (blue closed circles). There is also a purple ring added to indicate gages that are flooding.
Next Generation Water Observing System Upper Colorado & Gunnison River Basin briefing sheet.
Next Generation Water Observing System Upper Colorado & Gunnison River Basin briefing sheet.
This is an animation showing the changing conditions of USGS streamgages for Water Year 2018 (October 1, 2017 to September 30, 2018). The conditions shown range from the driest condition seen at a gage to the wettest.
This is an animation showing the changing conditions of USGS streamgages for Water Year 2018 (October 1, 2017 to September 30, 2018). The conditions shown range from the driest condition seen at a gage to the wettest.
Briefing sheet for the Next Generation Water Observing System—Delaware River Basin pilot.
Briefing sheet for the Next Generation Water Observing System—Delaware River Basin pilot.
Below are publications associated with NGWOS.
Below are data or web applications associated with NGWOS.
The U.S. Geological Survey WaterAlert service provides notifications to your email or phone for changes in water conditions based on thresholds you choose.
The National Water Dashboard (NWD) is a mobile, interactive tool that provides real-time information on water levels, weather, and flood forecasts - all in one place on a computer, smartphone, or other mobile device. The NWD presents real-time stream, lake and reservoir, precipitation, and groundwater data from more than 13,500 USGS observation stations across the country.
WaterQualityWatch provides access to real-time water-quality data collected at more than 2,000 stream sites throughout the United States, including streamflow, water temperature, specific conductance, pH, dissolved oxygen, turbidity, and nitrate.
The USGS provides real-time or near-real-time conditions water data at sites across the Nation. Current data typically are recorded at 15- to 60-minute intervals, stored onsite, and then transmitted to USGS offices every 1 to 4 hours, depending on the data relay technique used. Recording and transmission times may be more frequent during critical events.
The USGS Mobile Water Data site highlights USGS current conditions water data in a mobile-friendly website, allowing users to monitor conditions at a favorite river or stream or locate nearby monitoring locations. All USGS current conditions water data is available.
Neural networks are powerful deep learning models that help us make accurate environmental predictions. This data visualization describes how to train an artificial neural network, and how the USGS uses them to make physically-realistic predictions with less data.
A majority of the water in the western U.S. comes from snowmelt, but changes in the timing, magnitude, and duration of snowmelt can alter water availability downstream. This data visualization story explores what changing snowmelt means for water in the West, and how new USGS efforts can advance snow science by modeling snowpack and snowmelt dynamics and linking these results to streamflow.
The Delaware River supports thriving ecosystems and drinking water for 16 million people. How water is shared, and the quality of that water, has been the focus of decades of inter-state discussion, negotiation, and research. This data visualization story uses streamflow, salinity, and temperature to show how new USGS science and monitoring can inform water management in this age of cooperation.
The Water Quality Portal integrates and provides access to publicly available water-quality data from databases such as USGS NWIS and BioData, EPA STORET, and USDA-ARS STEWARDS through a single search interface.
The NGWMN Data Portal provides access to groundwater data from multiple, dispersed databases in a web-based mapping application. The Portal contains current and historical data including water levels, water quality, lithology, and well construction.
This site serves USGS water data (streamflow, groundwater, water quality, site information, and statistics) via automated means using web services and extensible markup language (XML), as well as other popular media types. Services are invoked with the REST protocol. These services designed for high fault tolerance and very high availability.
Substantial advances in water science, together with emerging breakthroughs in technical and computational capabilities, have led the USGS to develop a Next Generation Water Observing System (NGWOS). The USGS NGWOS will provide real-time data on water quantity and quality in more affordable and rapid ways than previously possible, and in more locations.
USGS's NGWOS will integrate fixed and mobile monitoring assets in the water, ground, and air, including innovative webcams and new ground- and space-based sensors. When fully implemented, the NGWOS will provide high temporal and spatial resolution data on streamflow, evapotranspiration, snowpack, soil moisture, water quality, groundwater/surface-water connections, stream velocity distribution, sediment transport, and water use. USGS partner and stakeholder needs are helping to inform the NGWOS design so that data and information generated by the NGWOS will help them anticipate water shortages more accurately and react to water hazards more quickly.
An NGWOS pilot in the Delaware River Basin is providing an opportunity to develop the NGWOS in a nationally important, complex interstate river system.
A western basin—the Upper Colorado River Basin—was selected for inclusion in the NGWOS in November 2019. This basin is providing an opportunity to improve regional water prediction in snowmelt dominated systems.
The Illinois River Basin is being added to the NGWOS (2020) to fill monitoring gaps and data needs to advance nutrient delivery and harmful algal bloom prediction.
NGWOS data will support advanced modeling tools to provide state-of-the-art flood and drought forecasts, drive emergency- and water-management decision support systems, and address difficult questions such as:
The NGWOS aims to foster innovation and development of monitoring technologies and methodologies to make data more affordable and more rapidly available. Monitoring innovations also are expected to lead to more types of data at higher temporal and spatial frequencies. Innovation testing sites will be identified on main-stem streams and small streams within NGWOS watersheds. These locations will provide a platform for rigorous, transparent, and reproducible testing of emerging and innovative monitoring technologies by the USGS and other entities. Technologies of interest include radar and image velocimetry for remotely sensing surface-water velocities, drone-mounted ground-penetrating radar for measuring bathymetry for improving flow estimates, new sensors for monitoring continuous water-quality and suspended sediment, and others. The application and benefits of these innovations will extend beyond the NGWOS watersheds and be incorporated into routine operation of USGS monitoring networks.
The USGS has a nearly 140-year history of providing reliable and relevant scientific information to decision makers. Today (2019), the USGS operates and maintains real-time, continuous monitoring networks nationwide consisting of more than 8,200 streamflow-gaging stations, 2,100 water-quality stations, 1,700 groundwater-level monitoring wells, and 1,000 precipitation stations. USGS hydrographers make tens of thousands of discrete water measurements each year. Requests for USGS data exceed 670 million annually. Yet, the current National Streamflow Network—while providing data at critical locations—covers less than 1 percent of the Nation’s streams and rivers. This sampling density helps to inform current and past water conditions (see, for example, WaterWatch) but is not sufficient for predicting interactions between climate, surface water, groundwater and soil moisture across large watersheds.
From the perspectives of science, cost, and operations and maintenance, it is not necessary or feasible to collect data at a high spatial density throughout all large watersheds and aquifers. A more practical approach is to develop intensive monitoring networks in a small number of medium-sized watersheds (10,000-20,000 square miles) and underlying aquifers that are representative of larger regions across the Nation. Data from these intensively monitored watersheds can then be used in combination with data from existing monitoring networks to construct and reduce the uncertainty in advanced models to fill in data and knowledge gaps in regional and national water assessments and predictions. At present (2019), it is anticipated that the NGWOS will include at least 10 intensively monitored medium-sized watersheds, selected with input from USGS stakeholders, to represent a wide range of environmental, hydrologic and landscape settings across the Nation. At least one basin in each of 18 water resource regions will be identified for potential NGWOS consideration.
The USGS information systems for water-data management and delivery are being transformed and modernized as part of the NGWOS to accommodate new data and sensor networks, allow for integration with water data from multiple agencies and sectors, display observational data uncertainty, and enable data and analytical products to feed directly into models. Data telemetry systems also are being updated to allow for two-way communications and more frequent transmission of data to the internet.
Below are other science projects associated with NGWOS.
Below are data or web applications associated with NGWOS.
WaterWatch displays maps, graphs, and tables describing real-time, recent, and past streamflow conditions for the United States, including flood and droughts. Real-time information generally is updated on an hourly basis.
Below are multimedia items associated with NGWOS.
Conceptual illustration showing how USGS's Next Generation Water Observing System will enhance the spatial and temporal monitoring of water within reference basins and larger hydrologic regions in all U.S. states and territories.
Webcam at USGS Streamgage 01437500 Neversink River at Godeffroy, NY.
Visit Water Data For the Nation to get current data for this site.
Webcam at USGS Streamgage 01437500 Neversink River at Godeffroy, NY.
Visit Water Data For the Nation to get current data for this site.
Webcam at USGS Streamgage 09071750 Colorado River above Glenwood Springs, CO.
Visit Water Data For the Nation to get current data for this site.
Webcam at USGS Streamgage 09071750 Colorado River above Glenwood Springs, CO.
Visit Water Data For the Nation to get current data for this site.
Webcam at USGS Streamgage 09095500 Colorado River near Cameo, CO.
Visit Water Data For the Nation to get current data for this site.
Webcam at USGS Streamgage 09095500 Colorado River near Cameo, CO.
Visit Water Data For the Nation to get current data for this site.
Webcam at USGS Streamgage 01463500 Delaware River at Trenton NJ.
Visit the site page to access data for this site.
Webcam at USGS Streamgage 01463500 Delaware River at Trenton NJ.
Visit the site page to access data for this site.
Webcam at USGS Streamgage 01462000 Delaware River at Lambertville, NJ.
Visit Water Data For the Nation to get current data for this site.
Webcam at USGS Streamgage 01462000 Delaware River at Lambertville, NJ.
Visit Water Data For the Nation to get current data for this site.
Briefing sheet for the Next Generation Water Observing System—Illinois River Basin pilot.
Briefing sheet for the Next Generation Water Observing System—Illinois River Basin pilot.
This animation shows the changing conditions of USGS streamgages from October 1, 2019 to September 30, 2020. The conditions shown range from the driest condition seen at a gage (red open circles) to the wettest (blue closed circles). There is also a purple ring added to indicate gages that are flooding.
This animation shows the changing conditions of USGS streamgages from October 1, 2019 to September 30, 2020. The conditions shown range from the driest condition seen at a gage (red open circles) to the wettest (blue closed circles). There is also a purple ring added to indicate gages that are flooding.
Next Generation Water Observing System Upper Colorado & Gunnison River Basin briefing sheet.
Next Generation Water Observing System Upper Colorado & Gunnison River Basin briefing sheet.
This is an animation showing the changing conditions of USGS streamgages for Water Year 2018 (October 1, 2017 to September 30, 2018). The conditions shown range from the driest condition seen at a gage to the wettest.
This is an animation showing the changing conditions of USGS streamgages for Water Year 2018 (October 1, 2017 to September 30, 2018). The conditions shown range from the driest condition seen at a gage to the wettest.
Briefing sheet for the Next Generation Water Observing System—Delaware River Basin pilot.
Briefing sheet for the Next Generation Water Observing System—Delaware River Basin pilot.
Below are publications associated with NGWOS.
Below are data or web applications associated with NGWOS.
The U.S. Geological Survey WaterAlert service provides notifications to your email or phone for changes in water conditions based on thresholds you choose.
The National Water Dashboard (NWD) is a mobile, interactive tool that provides real-time information on water levels, weather, and flood forecasts - all in one place on a computer, smartphone, or other mobile device. The NWD presents real-time stream, lake and reservoir, precipitation, and groundwater data from more than 13,500 USGS observation stations across the country.
WaterQualityWatch provides access to real-time water-quality data collected at more than 2,000 stream sites throughout the United States, including streamflow, water temperature, specific conductance, pH, dissolved oxygen, turbidity, and nitrate.
The USGS provides real-time or near-real-time conditions water data at sites across the Nation. Current data typically are recorded at 15- to 60-minute intervals, stored onsite, and then transmitted to USGS offices every 1 to 4 hours, depending on the data relay technique used. Recording and transmission times may be more frequent during critical events.
The USGS Mobile Water Data site highlights USGS current conditions water data in a mobile-friendly website, allowing users to monitor conditions at a favorite river or stream or locate nearby monitoring locations. All USGS current conditions water data is available.
Neural networks are powerful deep learning models that help us make accurate environmental predictions. This data visualization describes how to train an artificial neural network, and how the USGS uses them to make physically-realistic predictions with less data.
A majority of the water in the western U.S. comes from snowmelt, but changes in the timing, magnitude, and duration of snowmelt can alter water availability downstream. This data visualization story explores what changing snowmelt means for water in the West, and how new USGS efforts can advance snow science by modeling snowpack and snowmelt dynamics and linking these results to streamflow.
The Delaware River supports thriving ecosystems and drinking water for 16 million people. How water is shared, and the quality of that water, has been the focus of decades of inter-state discussion, negotiation, and research. This data visualization story uses streamflow, salinity, and temperature to show how new USGS science and monitoring can inform water management in this age of cooperation.
The Water Quality Portal integrates and provides access to publicly available water-quality data from databases such as USGS NWIS and BioData, EPA STORET, and USDA-ARS STEWARDS through a single search interface.
The NGWMN Data Portal provides access to groundwater data from multiple, dispersed databases in a web-based mapping application. The Portal contains current and historical data including water levels, water quality, lithology, and well construction.
This site serves USGS water data (streamflow, groundwater, water quality, site information, and statistics) via automated means using web services and extensible markup language (XML), as well as other popular media types. Services are invoked with the REST protocol. These services designed for high fault tolerance and very high availability.