Standards Development

There is a large diversity in the amount and type of water data collected across the state and needed to inform water-related decisions. Data could be about

• surface water conditions (e.g., evaporation, soil moisture, precipitation, ecosystem health, and location of reservoirs/rivers/conveyances);

• ground water conditions (e.g., groundwater levels, locations and depths of wells, aquifer parameters, and geological formations); and

• related management processes (e.g., permits for use (type and quantity), measured diversions/extractions, amount in storage, water returns/injections, and water quality).

For all these datasets, we need to capture relevant information (i.e., specific measurements) as well as associated metadata (i.e., describes and gives information about the specific measurements).

Generally, every agency has their own internal practices and standards but we require a common understanding to ensure data is being accurately represented within the central platform. The subpages below capture current discussions regarding these common standards for the NM Water Data Act.

Existing resources:

• USGS National Geospatial Program Standards and Specifications

• FGDC National Data Standards Publications

• FGDC Standards Working Group

• https://www.fgdc.gov/initiatives/open-water-data-initiative

• U.S. Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS)

• U.S. National Vegetation Classification (USNVC)

• https://www.epa.gov/waterdata/water-quality-data-wqx

• NGWMN

• NEMI.GOV

• The reality is that there aren’t actually many water data standards that are widely adopted. The main one that actually is in the widespread use in the United States is EPA WQX for water quality samples: The references at the bottom of this repository are helpful. The repository itself has the WQX schema in JSON format.

  Water rights and use data has a different standard for each state. There’s a sort of meta-conceptual standard, or data model in use by WaDE and approved by the USGS for the National Water Census: Description. Detailed Documentation

  For any kind of time series hydrologic data, including streamgages, continuous water quality monitoring sensors, and groundwater well profiles, and the environmental features these sensors collect data about: WaterML2 https://www.ogc.org/standards/waterml This is more of a meta-standard or data model.

  ODM2 is a highly general data model that includes many helpful controlled vocabularies . It was developed by CUAHSI for more academic purposes and mayu be overkill, but its concepts can be helpful to think through for novel data types that are not really standardized anywhere yet.

  For other controlled vocabularies:
  For things like general observed physical properties and units, QUDT is comprehensive.
  NEMI is good for water quality methods and analytes