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David L Blodgett

Dave is a hydro informatics specialist with the USGS Integrated Modeling and Prediction Division Geo-Intelligence Branch. He is currently working as a hydro-informatics lead accross the USGS Water Mission Area and the hydroscience community.

Dave holds a B.S. in civil and environmental engineering and an M.S. in water resources engineering form the UW-Madison. Dave started his career with the USGS in 2009 with a focus on hydrology and ecology modelering data. Within the USGS, Dave is a member of the Water Availability and Use Science Program leadership team and leads the Interoperability Team of the Water Prediction Work Program Integrated Science Planning team. Outside the USGS, Dave is a technical leader in numerous committes and working groups, such as the Advisory Committee on Water Information Subcommittee on Spatial Water Data, the Earth Science Information Partners Information Technology and Interoperability working group, and the Open Geospatial Consortium hydrology domain working group. 

Software Tools

nhdplusTools: Tools for Accessing and Working with the NHDPlus

ncdfgeom: NetCDF-CF Geometry and Timeseries Tools for R

nwm_subset: National Water Model Output Tools

intersectr: (preliminary)  Spatiotemporal Intersections

PROFILE

Dave’s great interest in water resources grew from his love of paddle-sports as a teenager. Designing and building canoes and kayaks and working as a buyer for a specialty canoe and kayak retailer taught him to be self directed and learn independently. As an undergraduate and masters student at the UW - Madison, he gained valuable experience as a teaching assistant, research assistant, and as a project manager for multiple national champion student competition teams in both the ASCE Concrete Canoe competition and the Metcalf and Eddy student wastewater treatment design competition. He is currently applying his background and training in management, environmental modeling, geospatial information science, and environmental data analysis at the USGS Water Mission Area. Outside of work, Dave is an avid cyclist. He competes in both road and cyclocross disciplines and enjoys exploring new places by bike every chance he gets.

Leadership Positions

Co-Chair OGC/WMO Hydrology Domain Working Group

OGC Architecture Board Member

Technical Advisor to the National Hydrography Infrastructure Working Group

Standards Working Group Chair for OGC WaterML2 Part 3: Surface Water Hydrologic Features – HY_Features

NetCDF-CF Conventions Committee

EDUCATION

University of Wisconsin Madison — BS Civil and Environmental Engineering 2002-2008

University of Wisconsin Madison — MS Water Resources Engineering 2008-2010

 

Science and Products

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USGS science for a changing world logo

Geo Data Portal

CDI helped fund development of the USGS Geo Data Portal in 2010. In 2012, CDI funded two projects to increase the functionality of the Geo Data Portal. The Resources section below contains links to the Geo Data Portal website and deliverables from the 2012 projects. Principal Investigator : David L Blodgett Description of the Geo Data Portal from the Geo Data Portal documentation home : The USG
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Community for Data Integration (CDI)
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Geo Data Portal

CDI helped fund development of the USGS Geo Data Portal in 2010. In 2012, CDI funded two projects to increase the functionality of the Geo Data Portal. The Resources section below contains links to the Geo Data Portal website and deliverables from the 2012 projects. Principal Investigator : David L Blodgett Description of the Geo Data Portal from the Geo Data Portal documentation home : The USG
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USGS science for a changing world logo

Networking the California Climate Commons with the USGS Geo Data Portal

The California Climate Commons (CCC) and USGS Geo Data Portal (GDP) teams have collaborated to curate and host California and Great Basin Characterization Model (BCM) results. The CCC has successfully set up a web-server and installed needed software to serve these model results using data and web service standards that are compatible with the GDP. All raw monthly data has been transferred to th
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Community for Data Integration (CDI)
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Networking the California Climate Commons with the USGS Geo Data Portal

The California Climate Commons (CCC) and USGS Geo Data Portal (GDP) teams have collaborated to curate and host California and Great Basin Characterization Model (BCM) results. The CCC has successfully set up a web-server and installed needed software to serve these model results using data and web service standards that are compatible with the GDP. All raw monthly data has been transferred to th
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USGS science for a changing world logo

Establishing the Land Use Land Cover Geo Data Portal and Supporting Data Services

This project sought to incorporate land-use land-cover time series data into the Geo Data Portal web service infrastructure. Till now, the Geo Data Portal has been used for relatively low spatial resolution downscaled climate data. Data from the EPA’s Integrated Climate and Land Use Scenarios was incorporated into a web service compatible with the Geo Data Portal and is now hosted in the Geo Data
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Community for Data Integration (CDI)
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Establishing the Land Use Land Cover Geo Data Portal and Supporting Data Services

This project sought to incorporate land-use land-cover time series data into the Geo Data Portal web service infrastructure. Till now, the Geo Data Portal has been used for relatively low spatial resolution downscaled climate data. Data from the EPA’s Integrated Climate and Land Use Scenarios was incorporated into a web service compatible with the Geo Data Portal and is now hosted in the Geo Data
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Dead and dying mangrove trees in shallow water

Evaluating Downscaled Climate Models for Projecting Future Changes in the Southeast

Climate change is likely to have many effects on natural ecosystems in the Southeast U.S. While there is information available to conservation managers and ecologists from the global climate models (GCMs), this information is at too coarse a resolution for use in vulnerability assessments and decision making. To better assess how climate change could affect multiple sectors, including ecosystems,
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Climate Adaptation Science Centers
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Evaluating Downscaled Climate Models for Projecting Future Changes in the Southeast

Climate change is likely to have many effects on natural ecosystems in the Southeast U.S. While there is information available to conservation managers and ecologists from the global climate models (GCMs), this information is at too coarse a resolution for use in vulnerability assessments and decision making. To better assess how climate change could affect multiple sectors, including ecosystems,
Learn More

Updated CONUS river network attributes based on the E2NHDPlusV2 and NWMv2.1 networks (ver. 2.0, February 2023)

The comid field of these data can be used to join to the NHDPlus version 2 flowline comid or catchment featureid attributes. The included attributes follow the same data model as the NHDPlusV2 but include numerous updates and improvements to network connectivity. All attributes that depend on network connectivity have been recalculated. These attributes are based on the National Hydrography Datas

Mainstem Rivers of the Conterminous United States (ver. 2.0, February 2023)

Mainstem rivers are the backbone of a connected network of hydrologic units that cover the landscape. A mainstem connects a headwater source area to an outlet. This data release identifies the same mainstem paths in hydrographic datasets for the conterminous US. The Mainstems dataset includes cross walks between mainstem identifiers and several hydrographic datasets. These cross walk tables do no

Twelve-digit hydrologic unit total flow and snowmelt from the National Hydrologic Model Infrastructure with the Precipitation-Runoff Modeling System, 1980-2016

This dataset is part of the National Water Census ongoing development of best estimates of daily historical water budgets for over 100,000 hydrologic units across the United States. In this release, estimates of total flow and snowmelt for each hydrologic unit are added to the already released estimates of actual evapotranspiration, snowpack water-equivalent storage, soil moisture, recharge, strea
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South Atlantic Water Science Center (SAWSC)

Updated CONUS river network attributes based on the E2NHDPlusV2 and NWMv2.1 networks

The comid field of these data can be used to join to the NHDPlus version 2 flowline comid or catchment featureid attributes. The included attributes follow the same data model as the NHDPlusV2 but include numerous updates and improvements to network connectivity. All attributes that depend on network connectivity have been recalculated. These attributes are based on the National Hydrography Datas
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Colorado Water Science Center

Mainstem Rivers of the Conterminous United States

Mainstem rivers are the backbone of a connected network of hydrologic units that cover the landscape. A mainstem connects a headwater source area to an outlet. This data release identifies the same mainstem paths in hydrographic datasets for the conterminous US. The Mainstems dataset includes cross walks between mainstem identifiers and several hydrographic datasets. These cross walk tables do no

Mainstem Rivers of the World based on MERIT hydrography and Natural Earth names

Mainstem rivers are the backbone of a connected network of hydrologic units that cover the landscape. A mainstem connects a headwater source area to an outlet. This data release identifies the same mainstem paths in hydrographic datasets for the world based on the MERIT hydrography and the Natural Earth river names. Made with Natural Earth. Free vector and raster map data @ naturalearthdata.com.

National Water Model V2.1 retrospective for selected NWIS gage locations, (1979-2020)

This dataset contains modeled hourly streamflow in cubic meters per second at each of about eighteen thousand selected operational and water-quality stream gage locations. It was assembled from publicly available retrospective V2.1 National Water Model outputs (See NWM Retrospective source info). The streamflow variable was extracted from model output files and the data were reshaped to optimize r

Twelve-digit hydrologic unit actual evapotranspiration and snowpack water equivalent storage from the National Hydrologic Model Infrastructure with the Precipitation-Runoff Modeling System 1980-2016

This dataset is part of the National Water Census Water Budget Estimation and Evaluation Project's ongoing development of best estimates of daily historical water budgets for over 100,000 hydrologic units across the United States. In this release, estimates of actual evapotranspiration and snowpack water equivalent storage are added to the already released estimates of soil moisture, recharge, str
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Water Resources

National Water Model V2.0 retrospective for selected NWIS gage locations (1993-2018)

This dataset contains modeled hourly streamflow in cubic meters per second at each of about eighteen thousand selected operational and water-quality stream gage locations. It was assembled from publicly available retrospective V2.0 National Water Model outputs. The streamflow variable was extracted from model output files and the data were reshaped to optimize read performance. The stream gage loc
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Water Resources
Filter Total Items: 14

Mainstems: A logical data model implementing mainstem and drainage basin feature types based on WaterML2 Part 3: HY Features concepts

The Mainstems data model implements the catchment and flowpath concepts from WaterML2 Part 3: Surface Hydrology Features (HY_Features) for persistent, cross-scale, identification of hydrologic features. The data model itself provides a focused and lightweight method to describe hydrologic networks with minimum but sufficient information. The design is intended to provide a model for data integrati
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Water Resources

USGS-Water Resources Mission Area progress toward an internet of water

No abstract available.
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Water Resources

Continuing progress toward a national assessment of water availability and use

Executive SummaryThe Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009 (Public Law 111—11) was passed into law on March 30, 2009. Subtitle F, also known as the SECURE Water Act, calls for the establishment of a “national water availability and use assessment program” within the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). The USGS issued the first report on the program in 2013. Program progress over the period 2013–17
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Water Resources, Earth Resources Observation and Science Center, Water Availability and Use Science Program, Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center

The Future

No abstract available.

Open hydrology courseware using the United States Geological Survey’s National Water Census Data Portal

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is the primary U.S. Government agency for water data collection and dissemination. In this role, the USGS has recently created and deployed a National Water Census Data Portal (NWC-DP) which provides access to streamflow, evapotransporation, precipitation, aquatic biology and other data at the national level. Recognizing the value of these data sets for hydrologic

An analysis of water data systems to inform the Open Water Data Initiative

Improving access to data and fostering open exchange of water information is foundational to solving water resources issues. In this vein, the Department of the Interior's Assistant Secretary for Water and Science put forward the charge to undertake an Open Water Data Initiative (OWDI) that would prioritize and accelerate work toward better water data infrastructure. The goal of the OWDI is to bui
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Groundwater and Streamflow Information Program

Progress on water data integration and distribution: a summary of select U.S. Geological Survey data systems

Critical water-resources issues ranging from flood response to water scarcity make access to integrated water information, services, tools, and models essential. Since 1995 when the first water data web pages went online, the U.S. Geological Survey has been at the forefront of water data distribution and integration. Today, real-time and historical streamflow observations are available via web pag
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Center for Ingrated Data Analysis

geoknife: Reproducible web-processing of large gridded datasets

Geoprocessing of large gridded data according to overlap with irregular landscape features is common to many large-scale ecological analyses. The geoknife R package was created to facilitate reproducible analyses of gridded datasets found on the U.S. Geological Survey Geo Data Portal web application or elsewhere, using a web-enabled workflow that eliminates the need to download and store large dat

Community for Data Integration 2013 Annual Report

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) conducts earth science to help address complex issues affecting society and the environment. In 2006, the USGS held the first Scientific Information Management Workshop to bring together staff from across the organization to discuss the data and information management issues affecting the integration and delivery of earth science research and investigate the use o
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Science Analytics and Synthesis (SAS), Community for Data Integration (CDI), Science Data Management

Downscaled climate projections for the Southeast United States: evaluation and use for ecological applications

Climate change is likely to have many effects on natural ecosystems in the Southeast U.S. The National Climate Assessment Southeast Technical Report (SETR) indicates that natural ecosystems in the Southeast are likely to be affected by warming temperatures, ocean acidification, sea-level rise, and changes in rainfall and evapotranspiration. To better assess these how climate changes could affect m
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Ecosystems, Climate Adaptation Science Centers

New service interface for River Forecasting Center derived quantitative precipitation estimates

For more than a decade, the National Weather Service (NWS) River Forecast Centers (RFCs) have been estimating spatially distributed rainfall by applying quality-control procedures to radar-indicated rainfall estimates in the eastern United States and other best practices in the western United States to producea national Quantitative Precipitation Estimate (QPE) (National Weather Service, 2013). Th
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Water Resources, Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center, Upper Midwest Water Science Center

The U.S. Geological Survey Climate Geo Data Portal: an integrated broker for climate and geospatial data

The increasing availability of downscaled climate projections and other data products that summarize or predict climate conditions, is making climate data use more common in research and management. Scientists and decisionmakers often need to construct ensembles and compare climate hindcasts and future projections for particular spatial areas. These tasks generally require an investigator to procu
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Center for Ingrated Data Analysis, Community for Data Integration (CDI)

mainstems workflow: HU12 NHDPlusV2 NHDPlus HiRes Matching

HU12 NHDPlusV2 NHDPlus HiRes Matching The logic encoded in this repository is documented in: Blodgett, D., Johnson, J. M., Sondheim, M., Wieczorek, M., Frazier, N. (2021). Mainstems: A logical data model implementing mainstem and drainage basin feature types based on WaterML2 Part 3: HY Features concepts. Environmental Modelling and Software, 135. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsoft.2020.104927 Th

sbtools: USGS ScienceBase Tools

Tools for interacting with U.S. Geological Survey ScienceBase https://www.sciencebase.gov interfaces. ScienceBase is a data cataloging and collaborative data management platform. Functions included for querying ScienceBase, and creating and fetching datasets.

nhdplusTools: Tools for Accessing and Working with the NHDPlus

Tools for traversing and working with National Hydrography Dataset Plus (NHDPlus) data. All methods implemented in 'nhdplusTools' are available in the NHDPlus documentation available from the US Environmental Protection Agency https://www.epa.gov/waterdata/basic-information.

NetCDF-CF Geometry and Timeseries Tools for R

Tools to create time series and geometry 'NetCDF' files.

Science and Products