Martyn Smith
Biography
- Bachelor of Arts (Geography) Binghamton University, Binghamton, NY. 2001
- Master of Arts (Geography) University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT. 2004
- Cartographer, Water Science Center, US Geological Survey, Troy, NY. 2003 - present
Martyn J Smith is a cartographer at the USGS New York Water Science Center in Troy, NY. Martyn splits time between as a senior software developer with Web Informatics and Mapping (WIM) and the New York Water Science Center on a variety of web mapping and database management applications. He finds his primary focus providing the public with easy to use applications for accessing USGS data.
Selected Web Applications:
Additional examples of applications Martyn has developed or contributed to are available at his personal github repository and at the Web Informatics and Mapping (WIM) github repository.
Science and Products
HAIL (Hydrologic Applied Innovations Lab)
HAIL (Hydrologic Applied Innovations Lab)
Development of Long Island Water Quality Integrated Data System (LIQWIDS) - User interface and web services in support of collaboration under the Long Island Nitrogen Action Plan(LINAP)
PROBLEM There are more than 60 organizations and agencies collecting water-quality data on Long Island. The types of database management that are used to store and archive regulatory and non-regulatory data vary from paper forms to spreadsheets to State and Federal databases, and there is minimal communication between these systems. As a result, those interested in analyzing data may be...
New York Nowcast, Recreational Beaches of New York
Problem – Currently, swim advisories or closings are issued by beach managers based on standards for concentrations of bacterial indicators such as Escherichia coli (E. coli). Standard culture methods for these bacteria take at least 18-24 hours before results are available. At most Great Lakes beaches, the beach is posted with an advisory or closing or is determined to be acceptable for...
Identifying Thermal Refuges in the Schoharie Watershed
Problem Water temperature is a critical component of trout habitat. Stream temperatures not only affect the distribution, behavior, and survival of trout (and other species), but also compel these species to move toward small areas of preferred temperatures, known as refuges, to maximize growth, survival, and fitness. The Schoharie watershed in the Catskill Mountains, including East Kill, West...
Groundwater Conditions on Long Island, New York in 2010
USGS online mapper for water-table altitude, and potentiometric surface of the Magothy, Jameco, Lloyd, and North Shore aquifers on Long Island, NY, in 2010.
Groundwater Conditions on Long Island, New York in 2013
USGS online mapper for water-table altitude, and potentiometric surface of the Magothy, Jameco, Lloyd, and North Shore aquifers on Long Island, NY, in 2013.
New York Nowcast Beach Status
New York Nowcast predicts water quality conditions at select beach swimming areas in NY. The Nowcast estimates conditions by merging environment and climate data with variables measured at a beach by 8 AM each morning and entering them into a computer program which provides a probability from 1 to 100 as to whether or not the beach has exceeded the bathing-water standard of 235 units of E. coli.
Upstate New York Surficial Aquifer Viewer
Map view of over 30 sand and gravel aquifers in upstate New York (Note: Zoom-in to purple-shaded areas for detailed 1:24,000 scale aquifer maps. Use the Map Identify tool, "i", to display links to related on-line reports.)
New York Borehole Well Log Viewer
Borehole geophysics is the science of recording and analyzing measurements of physical properties made in wells or test holes. Probes that measure different properties are lowered into the borehole to collect continuous or point data that is graphically displayed as a geophysical log.
Monthly Hydrologic Conditions for New York Mapper
The U.S. Geological Survey New York Water Science Center’s monthly summary reports and tables of hydrologic conditions for surface and ground water list the station, county, period of record, and several statistics, including color-coded percent exceedance categories based on average monthly conditions for the period of record at each station.
USGS NWIS Mapper (New York)
The National Water Information System (NWIS) provides access to data at over 1.5 million sites. There are 56 possible site types used in the NWIS data base, including 14 primary types and 42 secondary types. To simplify mapping of the site locations for most practical applications, the site types are displayed in 5 groups that include the following primary and secondary types.
Streamstats
StreamStats for New York can be used to estimate (1) instantaneous flood discharges with exceedance probabilities of 0.8, 0.667, 0.5, 0.2, 0.1, 0.04, 0.02, 0.01, 0.005, and 0.002 (1.25-, 1.5-, 2-, 5-, 10-, 25-, 50-, 100-, and 500-year recurrence intervals, respectively) for ungaged, unregulated, rural streams throughout NY; (2) bankfull discharge and channel characteristics of streams in NY.
StreamStats, version 4
IntroductionStreamStats version 4, available at https://streamstats.usgs.gov, is a map-based web application that provides an assortment of analytical tools that are useful for water-resources planning and management, and engineering purposes. Developed by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the primary purpose of StreamStats is to provide...
Ries, Kernell G.; Newson, Jeremy K.; Smith, Martyn J.; Guthrie, John D.; Steeves, Peter A.; Haluska, Tana; Kolb, Katharine R.; Thompson, Ryan F.; Santoro, Richard D.; Vraga, Hans W.Variations in water temperature and implications for trout populations in the Upper Schoharie Creek and West Kill, New York, USA
Water temperature is a key component of aquatic ecosystems because it plays a pivotal role in determining the suitability of stream and river habitat to most freshwater fish species. Continuous temperature loggers and airborne thermal infrared (TIR) remote sensing were used to assess temporal and spatial temperature patterns on the Upper Schoharie...
George, Scott D.; Baldigo, Barry P.; Smith, Martyn J.; Mckeown, Donald M; Faulringer, JasonDevelopment of flood regressions and climate change scenarios to explore estimates of future peak flows
A new Web-based application, titled “Application of Flood Regressions and Climate Change Scenarios To Explore Estimates of Future Peak Flows”, has been developed by the U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the New York State Department of Transportation, that allows a user to apply a set of regression equations to estimate the...
Burns, Douglas A.; Smith, Martyn J.; Freehafer, Douglas A.Measuring Historical Coastal Change using GIS and the Change Polygon Approach
This study compares two automated approaches, the transect‐from‐baseline technique and a new change polygon method, for quantifying historical coastal change over time. The study shows that the transect‐from‐baseline technique is complicated by choice of a proper baseline as well as generating transects that intersect with each other rather than...
Smith, M.J.; Cromley, R.G.Environmental settings of streams sampled for mercury in New York and South Carolina, 2005-09
This report summarizes the environmental settings of streams in New York and South Carolina, where the U.S. Geological Survey completed detailed investigations during 2005-09 into factors contributing to mercury bioaccumulation in top-predator fish and other stream organisms. Descriptions of location, land use/land cover, climate, precipitation,...
Scudder Eikenberry, Barbara C.; Riva-Murray, Karen; Smith, Martyn J.; Bradley, Paul M.; Button, Daniel T.; Clark, Jimmy M.; Burns, Douglas A.; Journey, Celeste A.Spatial patterns of mercury in macroinvertebrates and fishes from streams of contrasting forested landscapes in the eastern United States
Controls on mercury bioaccumulation in lotic ecosystems are not well understood. During 2007–2009, we studied mercury and stable isotope spatial patterns of macroinvertebrates and fishes from two medium-sized (<80 km2) forested basins in contrasting settings. Samples were collected seasonally from multiple sites across the Fishing Brook...
Riva-Murray, Karen; Chasar, Lia C.; Bradley, Paul M.; Burns, Douglas A.; Brigham, Mark E.; Smith, Martyn J.; Abrahamsen, Thomas A.Magnitude and Frequency of Floods in New York
Techniques are presented for estimating the magnitude and frequency of flood discharges on rural, unregulated streams in New York, excluding Long Island. Peak-discharge-frequency data and basin characteristics from 388 streamflow-gaging stations in New York and adjacent states were used to develop multiple linear regression equations for flood...
Lumia, Richard; Freehafer, Douglas A.; Smith, Martyn J.Pre-USGS Publications
StreamStats Data Preparation Tools, version 4
A Python package to pre-process and hydro-enforce digital elevation models using hydrography features for use in the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) StreamStats project.