CUAHSI Hydrologic Information System

The Consortium of Universities for the Advancement of Hydrologic Science, Inc (CUAHSI) is an organization representing more than 100 universities, sponsored by the National Science Foundation to develop infrastructure and services to advance the development of hydrologic science and education in the United States. The CUAHSI Hydrologic Information System (HIS) project is a component of CUAHSI’s mission that is intended to improve infrastructure and services for hydrologic information. As presently conceived, the CUAHSI Hydrologic Information System has four components:

• a Hydrologic Observations Database, which is a relational database containing observational data on streamflow, climate, water quality, groundwater levels, and other data measured at monitoring points;
• A Digital Watershed, which synthesizes the Hydrologic Observations Database with GIS data, weather and climate grids and remote sensing data to form a comprehensive depiction of the water environment of a hydrologic region;
• A Hydrologic Analysis System, which supports analysis of fluxes, flowpaths, residence times and mass balances on the Digital Watershed;
• A Hydrologic Digital Library, which stores and provides internet access to digital products from all parts of the Hydrologic Information System.

The HIS development team consists of a team of academic hydrologists collaborating with the San Diego Supercomputer Center as our technology partner. This CD-ROM has on it software components, datasets, documents, and tutorials that summarize what we have accomplished so far in this project. It should be understood that all these elements are prototypes and they will be changed and developed as the project proceeds. The intent in providing them in this CD form is to allow as much access as possible to the capabilities that the HIS team presently possesses, and to provide an opportunity for interaction and feedback from others in the CUAHSI community who would like to collaborate with our project. I would like to acknowledge the large amount of work that Venkatesh Merwade did to put together this CD-ROM.

David R. Maidment

Principal Investigator, CUAHSI Hydrologic Information Systems