ARS | Publication request: Database Structure for Long-Term Hydrologic Data in the Goodwater Creek Watershed

Submitted to: Meeting Abstract
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: November 11, 2006
Publication Date: November 11, 2006
Citation: Sadler, E.J., Lerch, R.N., Sudduth, K.A., Alberts, E.E., Oster, T., Drummond, S.T. 2006. Database Structure for Long-Term Hydrologic Data in the Goodwater Creek Watershed [Abstract]. Managing Agricultural Landscapes for Environmental Quality: Strengthening the Science Base, SWCS, October 11-13, 2006, Kansas City, Missouri. p. 81.

Technical Abstract: One of the more valuable assets possessed by ARS is the long-term record from their permanent watershed network, several of which hold more than 30 years of data. However, these data have not always been adequately documented, nor made easily available to the public. This report describes ongoing research at the 72-km2 Goodwater Creek (GWC) watershed in north-central Missouri with objectives to: 1) fully document; 2) provide quality assurance, and 3) make available in web-compatible form historical GWC data. This watershed was instrumented for hydrology in 1971 and for water quality in 1993. It represents the Midwest Claypan Major Land Resource Area, which is dominated by runoff-prone soils. The original installation included three stream weirs, a rain gauge network, piezometers, and climate instruments. The later period included three field-sized watersheds and an automated weather station, plus autosamplers at all weirs. A database structure was developed capable of holding dissimilar data types, frequencies, and lengths of record. A particular emphasis was preserving an audit trail to the original measurements, while providing documented corrections where deficiencies were recognized. A second emphasis was in extensively flowcharting procedures, with explanatory documents, data definitions, and example files as hyperlinks. These will be documented in formal metadata format. The GWC database will be made available through the ARS STEWARDS (Sustaining the Earth's Watersheds, Agricultural Research Data System) when it is released.