The United States Geological Survey (USGS) investigates the occurrence, quantity,
quality, distribution, and movement of surface waters and ground waters and disseminates the data to the
public, state, and local governments, public and private utilities, and other federal agencies
involved with managing our water resources.
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As part of the U.S. Geological Survey's (USGS) program for
disseminating water data within USGS, to USGS cooperators, and to the general public, the USGS
maintains a distributed network of servers for the acquisition, processing, review, and
long-term storage of water data. This distributed network of computers is called the
National Water Information System (NWIS) and includes water data collected at over 1.5 million
sites around the country and at some border and territorial sites.
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The Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) gathers and distributes water quality
monitoring data collected by states, tribes, watershed groups, other federal agencies, volunteer groups,
and universities through the Water Quality Exchange (WQX) framework in the STORET Warehouse.
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The STORET Data Warehouse is USEPA's repository of the water
quality monitoring data collected by water resource management groups across the country. These
organizations, including states, tribes, watershed groups, other federal agencies, volunteer
groups and universities, submit data to the STORET Warehouse in order to make their data
publically accessible. Data can then be re-used for analysis. WQX is the framework by which
organizations submit data to the Warehouse.
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Groups submit data to the STORET Data Warehouse through a
framework called the Water Quality Exchange, or WQX. WQX is not a distributed database that
people use, but rather a standard way of sharing data to the STORET Data Warehouse, using the
National Environmental Information Exchange Network. The WQX framework consists of
different pieces. First, WQX defines a standard set of data elements that must be captured in a
data submission file in order for the data to come into the STORET Data Warehouse. Second, WQX
uses a standard set of internet protocols that define how a data submission is made to the
USEPA. Please go to the WQX page for more information about how WQX works.
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UMESC/LTRM - NGRREC affiliates with the Illinois Natural
History Survey (INHS) are one of six groups (Lake City, Minnesota; La Crosse, Wisconsin;
Bellevue, Iowa; Great Rivers and Havana, Illinois; and Open Rivers and Wetlands, Missouri)
nationally collecting fish population and water quality data for the Upper Mississippi
Environmental Sciences Center’s (UMESC) Long Term Resource Monitoring Program (LTRM). An
element of the Upper Mississippi River Restoration – Environmental Management Program
(UMRR-EMP) funded by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, LTRM conducts monitoring, focused
research projects and evaluates the success of habitat projects on the Upper Mississippi River
System. Since beginning in 1986, LTRM has compiled one of the most comprehensive long-term
data sets for any major ecosystem in the world.
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The Water Quality Portal (WQP) is a cooperative service
sponsored by the United States Geological Survey (USGS), the Environmental Protection Agency
(USEPA) and the National Water Quality Monitoring Council (NWQMC) that integrates publicly
available water quality data from the USGS National Water Information System (NWIS), the USEPA
STOrage and RETrieval (STORET) Data Warehouse, and the USDA ARS Sustaining The Earth’s
Watersheds - Agricultural Research Database System (STEWARDS). The WQP serves data collected by
over 400 state, federal, tribal, and local agencies. As of February 2014, over 228 million
results from over 2.2 million monitoring locations are currently accessible through the portal.
The portal reports samples and results collected from each location since the beginning of the
databases.
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The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) is a dynamic
organization with 36,500 civilian and 700 military employees. This diverse workforce
provides vital public engineering services in peace and war to strengthen the nation’s security,
energize the economy, and reduce risks from disasters. The Corps aims to energize the
economy by dredging America’s waterways to support the movement of critical commodities and
providing recreation opportunities at our campgrounds, lakes and marinas, as well as reduce
disaster risk by devising hurricane and storm damage reduction infrastructure. The Corps
is active in protecting and restoring the Nation’s environment including critical efforts in the
Everglades, the Louisiana coast, and along many of our nation’s major waterways. The Corps
is also responsible for managing a large portion of the nation’s water resources infrastructure
including 700 dams, 55,000 acres of shoreline, and 422 lakes in 43 states.
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National Great Rivers Research and Education Center (NGRREC) was established in 2002 as a partnersship between the Illinois Natural History Survey, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Lewis and Clark Community College in Godfrey, IL. Each institution brings unique strengths to the partnership including the Survey’s history and experience with monitoring the state’s rivers, the University of Illinois’ world-class research expertise and Lewis and Clark’s location as a hub in the community at the confluence of the state’s great rivers. The unique partnership has enabled the Center’s rapid growth and contributions to watershed research and education.
Learn more about the
National Great Rivers Research and Education Center.
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Since 1858, the Illinois Natural History Survey Center (INHS) has been the guardian and recorder of the biological resources of Illinois---the state's biological memory. With a staff of over 200 scientists and technicians, it is recognized as the premier natural history survey in the nation. Over the years, its mission has remained fairly constant: to investigate the diversity, life histories, and ecology of the plants and animals of the state; to publish research results so that those resources can be managed wisely; and to provide information to the public in order to foster an understanding and appreciation of our natural heritage.
Learn more about the
Illinois Natural History Survey.
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Lewis and Clark Community College (LCC) is a two-year higher education institution with multiple campuses, a river research center, Community Education Centers and training centers located throughout the 220,891-person college district, which reaches into seven counties. Founded in 1970 with 450 students, today Lewis and Clark serves approximately 26,000 students annually.
Learn more about
Lewis and Clark Community College.
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The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) is the state’s flagship public university and a world leader in research, teaching, and public engagement. A land-grant university, Illinois is distinguished by the breadth of its programs, broad academic excellence, and internationally renowned faculty. The University of Illinois serves the state, the nation, and the world by creating knowledge, preparing students for lives of impact, and addressing critical societal needs through the transfer and application of knowledge.
Learn more about the
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
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Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant (IISG), with its unique mandate to bring the latest science to those who can best use the information, serves a critical role in empowering people to solve problems in sustainable ways. One of more than 30 Sea Grant Programs in the U.S., IISG is focused on the southern Lake Michigan region--104 miles of heavily urbanized and industrialized shoreline in Illinois and Indiana. One third of the population of the Great Lakes lives along the shore of Lake Michigan between Milwaukee, Wisconsin and Michigan City, Indiana. The program is funded through National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the University of Illinois and Purdue University, but IISG also works in partnerships with key organizations, institutions, and agencies in the region to reach more audiences and multiply opportunities for success. IISG brings together scientists, educators, policy makers, community decision makers, outreach specialists, business leaders, and the general public to work towards a healthy environment and economy.
Learn more about
Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant.
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The National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA provides computing, data, networking, and visualization resources and services that help scientists and engineers across the country better understand our world. NCSA is an interdisciplinary hub and is engaged in research and education collaborations with colleagues and students across the campus of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Established in 1986 as one of the original sites of the National Science Foundation's Supercomputer Centers Program, NCSA is supported by the state of Illinois, the University of Illinois, the National Science Foundation, and grants from other federal agencies. The center focuses on big computing, big data, and big research.
Learn more about the
NCSA.
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Learn more about the
Illinois EPA.
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