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January 8, 2013

USGS Water Data for the Nation (waterdata.usgs.gov)

  • New Water Use Data Category. With this release, the USGS is publicly providing a new water use data category. The USGS monitors the use of water across the United States. Aggregated water use data is available both nationally and at the state level. Water use data is available via various data categories (such as public supply) and is aggregated for counties within a state. Note that a Water Use census occurs only every five years and data categories vary with the census year. Data can be displayed in your browser (you can sort by column of interest) or the data can be downloaded in a tab-delimited (RDB) format. For more information see the new Water Use page.
  • Mapping interface changes
    • You can now see all sites on a statewide stream flow table on a map by pressing the “show sites on a map” button on this page. (PR 27298)
    • When you select to see sites on a map using the search interface (sites mapper) the map now appears in a new browser window or tab. (PR 28895)
    • The Google Maps disclaimer was removed when you select to see a particular site on a map, as ESRI maps are now being used. (PR 28926)
  • The notification sign up page includes instructions for subscribers to whitelist an alternate name for the server that sends notification emails. (PR 28314)
  • Help system improvements
    • All context sensitive help on waterdata.usgs.gov now retrieves data from the help system (help.waterdata.usgs.gov)
    • Help content that missed migration into help.waterdata.usgs.gov in July is now in the new help system.
    • Output formats are now documented for instantaneous values. (PR 28297)
    • Help system points to authoritative FIPS reference. (PR 29080)
    • Help links to groundwater tutorials now points to correct source. (PR 29092, 29240)
  • If stream flow is affected by backwater, an explanation is shown on the graph. (PR 28618)
  • Site usage is now being tracked by Google Analytics.
  • Users may be requested to give feedback on site usability because ForeSee customer satisfaction code has been included.

National Water Information System Mapper (maps.waterdata.usgs.gov)

  • Geographic search inputs have been modified to accept a keyboard Enter as well as a mouse selection of the go button.
  • The Access Data link for a selected site has been modified to go directly to the data page for instantaneous, daily, water-quality, peaks, and measurements data instead of going to an inventory of all available data for that site. The full inventory list is still available from the specific data page.

USGS Water Services (waterservices.usgs.gov)

  • For the groundwater levels web service tab-delimited (RDB) output, if no measurement was possible because the well was dry, then no parameter is associated with the observation, as is true with WaterML output. In addition, the data is no longer erroneously triplicated. (PR 27383).
  • Site usage is now being tracked by Google Analytics.
  • Users may be requested to give feedback on site usability because ForeSee customer satisfaction code has been included.