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The Southwest Watershed Research Center Data Access Project (DAP)
The USDA-ARS Southwest Watershed Research Center (SWRC) operates the Walnut Gulch Experimental Watershed (WGEW) in southeastern Arizona as an outdoor laboratory for studying semiarid rangeland hydrologic, ecosystem, climate, and erosion processes.
Since its establishment in 1953, the SWRC in Tucson, Arizona, has collected, processed, managed, and disseminated high-resolution, spatially distributed hydrologic data in support of the center's mission. Data management at the SWRC has evolved through time in response to new computing, storage, and data access technologies. In 1996, the SWRC initiated a multiyear project to upgrade rainfall and runoff sensors and convert analog systems to digital electronic systems supported by data loggers. This conversion was coupled with radio telemetry to remotely transmit recorded data to a central computer, thus greatly reducing operational overhead by reducing labor, maintenance, and data processing time. A concurrent effort was initiated to improve access to SWRC data by creating a system based on a relational database supporting access to the data via the Internet. An SWRC team made up of scientists, IT specialists, programmers, hydrologic technicians, and instrumentation specialists was formed. This effort is termed the Southwest Watershed Research Center Data Access Project (DAP).
The goal of the SWRC DAP is to efficiently disseminate data to researchers; land owners, users, and managers; and to the public. Primary access to the data is provided through a Web-based user interface. In addition, data can be accessed directly from within the SWRC network. The first priority for the DAP was to assimilate and make available rainfall and runoff data collected from two instrumented field sites, the WGEW near Tombstone, Arizona, and the Santa Rita Experimental Range (SRER) south of Tucson, Arizona.
Resources in this dataset:
Resource Title: Data Access Project.
File Name: Web Page, url: https://www.tucson.ars.ag.gov/dap
Datasets were provided by the USDA-ARS Southwest Watershed Research Center. Funding for these datasets was provided by the United States Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. Please send 1 copy of the published manuscript to: Southwest Watershed Research Center, 2000 E. Allen Rd. Tucson, AZ 857119
Funding
USDA-ARS
History
Data contact name
Heilman, PhilipData contact email
phil.heilman@ars.usda.govPublisher
USDA Agricultural Research ServiceIntended use
DAP was developed to provide web-based, public access to core datasets collected and maintained by SWRC. These data include long-term precipitation, discharge, sedimentation, hydro-climatic, soils, and land-atmospheric flux records. GIS layers and data-specific publications are served from DAP to provide further context to the datasets. The use of DAP is intended to provide SWRC scientists a centralized location to archive and serve datasets, while providing stakeholders, researchers, and the public with data access through a web-based interface.Use limitations
Datasets served from DAP are updated and available for web access after sufficient quality control procedures are conducted and, in some cases, research objectives are met. Therefore, individual datasets are made publicly available at different times. A network-wide change from analog-based recorders to digital recorders for precipitation and discharge measurements was made in 2000. Due to this change, care should be taken in interpretation of these datasets as known differences in timing exist.Temporal Extent Start Date
1953-01-01Theme
- Not specified
Geographic Coverage
{"type":"FeatureCollection","features":[{"geometry":{"type":"Polygon","coordinates":[[[-110.15357575622,31.77204695821],[-110.15357575622,31.663930078783],[-109.87806156483,31.663930078783],[-109.87806156483,31.77204695821],[-110.15357575622,31.77204695821]]]},"type":"Feature","properties":{}}]}Geographic location - description
The Walnut Gulch Experimental Watershed is located in the transition zone between the Sonoran and Chihuahuan deserts with an elevation ranging from 1220 to 1950 m. Walnut Gulch surrounds the town of Tombstone Arizona.ISO Topic Category
- boundaries
- climatologyMeteorologyAtmosphere
- environment
- inlandWaters
- location
National Agricultural Library Thesaurus terms
watersheds; Arizona; rangelands; hydrology; ecosystems; climateOMB Bureau Code
- 005:18 - Agricultural Research Service
OMB Program Code
- 005:040 - National Research
ARS National Program Number
- 211
Primary article PubAg Handle
Pending citation
- No
Public Access Level
- Public