David L Blodgett

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

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.

EXPERIENCE

Hydroinformatics Specialist, Geo-Intelligence Branch: U.S. Geological Survey Water Mission Area Integrated Modelling and Prediction Division; Middleton, WI— Jan 2018 - present.

Project Coordinator, Center for Integrated Data Analytics: U.S. Geological Survey Office of Water Information; Middleton, WI— Jan 2010 - 2017.

Field and Laboratory Research Assistant, Water Group: UW-Madison Civil and Environmental Engineering; Madison, WI— March 2006 – Jan 2010.

Teaching Assistant, UW-Madison Civil and Environmental Engineering; Madison, WI— Aug. 2007 – May 2008.

Project Manager and Co-chair, UW-Madison Concrete Canoe Team; Madison, WI—August 2005 – June 2008.

Carpenter’s Assistant, TDS Custom Construction; Madison, WI—October 2004 - August 2005.

Manager - Buyer, Carl’s Paddlin’ Canoe and Kayak Center; Madison, WI — May 2000 - October 2004.

Leadership Positions

Co-Chair OGC/WMO Hydrology Domain Working Group

Co-Chair AWRA Technology Committee

Chair ESIP Information Technology and Interoperability Working Group

OGC Architecture Board Member

Water Availability and Use Science Program Leadership Team Member

Water Prediction Work Program Integrated Science Team Interoperability Lead

Technical Advisor to the National Hydrography Infrastructure Working Group

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

Interoperability Experiment Lead for OGC Environmental Linked Features Interoperability Experiment

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

NOTABLE ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Detailed with a joint assignment with the NWS working toward NWS-USGS collaboration on the National Water Model.

Data curator and technical point of contact for the water theme of climate.data.gov.

Design and construction engineer, paddler and technical presenter for national champion concrete canoe team 2006 and 2007.

Project manager for national champion wastewater treatment design team in Metcalf and Eddy Student Design Competition.

PUBLICATIONS

OGC 18-097, OGC Environmental Linked Features Interoperability Experiment Engineering Report. Edited by: Blodgett,D., Cochrane, B., Atkinson, R., Grellet, S., Feliachi, A., Ritchie, A. (2019)

OGC 14-111r6, OGC® WaterML 2: Part 3 - Surface Hydrology Features (HY_Features) - Conceptual Model. Edited by: Blodgett, D., Dorblut., I. (2018)

Blodgett, D., Read, E.,  Lucido, J.,  Slawecki, T., and Young, D., 2016, An Analysis of Water Data Systems to Inform the Open Water Data Initiative. Journal of the American Water Resources Association (JAWRA) 52(4):845–858. DOI: 10.1111/1752-1688.12417

Blodgett, D.L., Lucido, J., Kreft, J., 2015, Progress on water data integration and distribution: a summary of select U.S. Geological Survey data systems: Journal of Hydroinformatics, DOI: 10.2166/hydro.2015.067

Blodgett, David L., 2013, The U.S. Geological Survey Climate Geo Data Portal: an integrated broker for climate and geospatial data: U.S. Geological Survey Fact Sheet 2013-3019, 2 p., 

Blodgett, David L., 2013, New service interface for River Forecasting Center derived quantitative precipitation estimates: U.S. Geological Survey Fact Sheet 2013-3035, 2 p., 

Blodgett, D.L., Booth, N.L., Kunicki, T.C., Walker, J.L., Jessica, L., 2012, Description of the U.S. Geological Survey Geo Data Portal Data Integration Framework: IEEE JSTARS.

Blodgett, D.L., Booth, N.L., Kunicki, T.C., Walker, J.L., and Viger, R.J., 2011, Description and testing of the Geo Data Portal: Data integration framework and Web processing services for environmental science collaboration: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2011–1157, 9 p.

NOTABLE PRESENTATIONS

AWRA Annual Conference 2018: Panel session providing an update on the Open Water Data Initiative. (Convener and panelist)

USGS Water Mission Area Brown Bag Series: OGC WaterML2: Part 3 –
Surface Hydrology Features (HY_Features) – Conceptual Model: What is it and how does it relate to NHD?

AWRA GIS Conference 2018: Application of an International Standard for Hydrologic Features Toward More Open Hydrologic Science Data

AWRA Annual Conference 2017: Hydrologic Features Standardization and the Environmental Linked Features Interoperability Experiment

AGU 2016: Hydrologic Geospatial Fabric as Community Cyberinfrastructure: International standardization best practices and the U.S. Open Water Data Initiative implementation.

AWRA Annual Conference 2016: hydrologically-determined features: subject of repeated study but difficult to positively identify Between studies.

AWRA GIS Conference 2016: The USGS Water Availability and Use Science Program's National Water Census Data Resources Strategy and Status

AGU 2015: Interoperable data resources for landscape-scale hydrology and ecology a brief history and vision for the future. And: Brokering access to massive climate and landscape data via web services: observations and lessons learned after five years of the Geo Data Portal project.

AWRA Annual Conference 2015: Moderator and Introductory speaker for Open Water Data Access and Analytics special track.

Earth Science Information Partners Federation 2015 Summery Meeting: Community Resilience: Keeping IT Together

USDA OCIO Presentation Series on Water Information: The Open Water Data Initiative: How USGS is working with partners to improve access to water data

Hydro Informatics Conference 2014: USGS Progress in Interdisciplinary Data Services and Processing Tools for Hydrologic Science.

AWRA Annual Conference 2014: Moderator and Introductory speaker for Open Water Data Access and Analytics special track.

AWRA GIS Specialty Conference 2014: Progress on Interdisciplinary Water Data Sharing. National Water Census Data Platform.

GeoData 2014: Keynote Presentation: Data Integration, Progress and Guiding Principles Disciplines, generalization, and open-access. 

AGU 2012: A Lifecycle Approach to Brokered Data Management for Hydrologic Modeling Data Using Open Standards. (Invited Poster)

AGU 2012: The Geo Data Portal an Example Physical and Application Architecture Demonstrating the Power of the "Cloud" Concept. (Invited Poster)

AGU 2012: An Automated System for Access to Derived Climate Indices in Support of Ecological Impacts Assessments and Resource Management. (Presenting Author)

AWRA Annual Conference 2012: An Open Architecture for the Hydrologic Modeling Decision Support Lifecycle

AWRA GIS Specialty 2012: Hydroclimatic Data Exchange and Processing Using Open Standards.