Water Data
USGS gauging station, Mill River near Hamden, Connecticut. Real-time and historical data for this station (and many others) are available through USGS Water Data.
Effective water management is utterly dependent on good water data. A few examples:
In order to protect human health, we need to know how toxic different chemicals are so we can set protective water-quality standards for drinking water, recreation, and other uses. And then we need to be able to accurately measure the concentrations of these chemicals.
In order to ensure a city will have enough water in a drought, we need to know something about how bad a drought is likely to be, how much water storage we have, and how much water people need to use for different purposes.
In order to assess whether a farm is using water efficiently, we need to be able to measure the amount of water being used – and how much water the plants need.
Resources to Understand Water Data
For a discussion of “information” as one of the “four Is,” see Chapter 1.
For a primer on water-availability data, see Chapter 2.
For a primer on water-use data, see Chapter 4.
For a discussion of the data challenges in managing flooding, water quality, and dams, see Chapter 7, Chapter 8, and Chapter 9, respectively.
Water Data in the News
Q & A: Scarcity Weighting of Water Use
"You indicate that the scarcity-weighted water footprint hasn't been widely accepted. Is there any specific reason or is it just that it hasn't caught on yet?" First, a quick review of the logic of the scarcity-weighted water footprint. The water footprint of a food,...
Ignoring Climate Change Won’t Make It Go Away
Three recent news items illustrate the Trump Administration's contempt for science and its attempt to degrade the information we need to manage water problems and other environmental issues: 1. "US Government to Stop Tracking the Costs of Extreme Weather," New York...