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Project Description & History
In September 2004, the Commonwealth Office of Technology (COT) was awarded a $750,000 Cooperative Agreement by the US Environmental Protection Agency (more grant info) to develop the Kentucky Watershed Modeling Information Portal (KWMIP). KWMIP is a web-based portal that provides input data for watershed modeling and assessments. The ultimate goal of the project is to enhance the use of watershed modeling in Kentucky’s environmental decision-making.
Project partners include the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), KY Division of Geographic Information (DGI), KY Environmental and Public Protection Cabinet, US Geological Survey, and Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC). Through an open solicitation process, OGC retained the services of ESRI and FMSM Engineers (now Stantec Consulting Services) to assist with programming needs required to build the portal.
User Needs Analysis (Aug 2005 - Oct 2005):
At the beginning of the project, a Technical Advisory Group (TAG) was established to advise project partners and provide input regarding model selection, key model datasets, identification of portal functions and training needs. The TAG consisted of future portal users from agencies, academia, nonprofits, and consultants.
Thirty-eight TAG members participated in one or both days of User Needs Analysis meetings held in August 2005. Objectives and parameters for the KWMIP project were established during these meetings. Defined project goals resulting from these discussions include:
- Increase the frequency of watershed model use to support environmental decisions
- Improve modeling efficiency and quality by serving appropriately formatted data over the web
- Provide a spatially distributed precipitation model
- Leverage existing and developing Kentucky and national data by training Kentucky water resource managers and modelers on the value of modeling and use of the KWIMP Portal
- Establish mechanisms to provide technical and financial stability for KWIMP beyond this project.
- Validate and extend the work of OGC to define and develop vendor-neutral service interfaces to water modeling component software
- Develop an effective interface to the Environmental Information Exchange Network (EIEN)
and allow for future inclusion/expansion to Kentucky's node on the EIEN.
User Needs Analysis Final Report (PDF 2.39MB)
Use Case (Nov 2005 - Mar 2006):
Following the objectives defined in the User Needs Analysis a Use Case was developed as a technique for capturing the potential requirements of a new system or software change. Each use case provides one or more scenarios that convey how the system should interact with the end user or another system to achieve a specific goal. The Use Case was drafted by project partners to describe KWMIP functions, user interactions, and services in greater detail. Descriptions include user registration and login, model selection, data preview, data selection, data transformation and delivery, and user community support.
System Design (Mar 2006 - Dec 2006):
Results from the Use Case were implemented in the development of KWMIP's final system design. The portal is designed to quickly and accurately provide clipped and formatted watershed model input data for selected models, which depend on tabular and geographic data from numerous sources, including the Commonwealth of Kentucky’s KYGeoNet and National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) holdings, the US EPA's EIEN, and the U.S. Geological Survey’s StreamStats and National Water Information Service (NWIS) programs.
The first step required the organization of all key information about a watershed model in a database, so it can be retrieved and used as a starting point for a new watershed modeling activity. To accomplish this organization, a simple metadata structure for a watershed model was defined. The definition includes basic descriptive information, such as the model’s name, purpose, and contact information; its study area, or area of applicability; and the datasets it requires. The dataset entries are actually pointers leading to metadata records, which in turn point to datasets that already exist in KYGeoNet, or to web service access software developed by the portal team. The fundamental objective of the portal is to facilitate the creation and use of these model metadata records.
After the model metadata record is created, a watershed modeler simply has to find it, define a unique study area, and initiate the "retrieve and clip" of data to that study area. Finally, with the model’s datasets and the user’s study area defined, the needed data can be downloaded.
Most geographic data will be accessed directly from the KYGeoNet through its ArcSDE™ data service and will be clipped and reprojected using ESRI’s ArcIMS™ Data Delivery Extension. Various other datasets will be retrieved from EPA and USGS data holdings mentioned above using custom web service access software developed by OGC and Stantec Consulting Services. ESRI's Geospatial Portal Tool Kit™ initiates all data requests and informs the user of the data's location after it has all been collected on the server.
Build and Test Phase (Dec 2006 - Jan 2008):
The portal team is customizing a number of commercial-off-the-shelf software components to build KWIMP following the above system design. ESRI's Geospatial Portal Toolkit™ v.3 (GPT) provides a user interface for locating the model and previewing the data sets. A Java applet being developed by OGC lets the user fine-tune their study area, starting with a watershed boundary dynamically delineated via the USGS Streamstats service. The applet also passes this customized study area boundary back to the GPT to use for data clipping. The KWMIP Study Area Boundary Generator was built to refine Data Selection through basin delineation for study boundaries and the Kentucky Climate Data Generator was created to provide watershed based access to precipitation and temperature data. The portal will also have access to Web Feature Services, such as the NWIS, which will provide geographic-based data.
A test pilot system was created by OGC. It included a statewide precipitation & temperature model, built by USGS. The pilot system was tested by the partners, as well as by the TAG.
Additional Steps
Geo Book (Feb 2006 - June 2006):
The EPA’s Southeastern Ecological Framework GeoBook© became web-enabled.
System Installation (Oct 2007 - Present):
After development was complete, the system was installed on a DGI server.
Operation and Maintenance (Oct 2007 - Present):
An operation and maintenance manual was developed for use by DGI to ensure that the portal remains functional and current after the grant project ends.
Training (December 2007 - Mar 2008):
Two training courses, including one for new users and another for advanced users, were offered. Training materials are accessible on this website.