COS 91-2 - The Ogallala Data Directory: A tool for Ogallala Aquifer region researchers and decision-makers

Abstract: The Ogallala Aquifer (OA) underlies about 111 million acres of Wyoming, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Colorado, Oklahoma, Texas, and New Mexico, including about 1.9 million acres of tribal lands and 2.9 million acres of federal lands. Water from the aquifer is vital to regional aquatic, riparian, range, and agricultural ecosystems. Management of the OA presents challenges in various forms, as it is a common resource that crosses multiple state lines and is subject to an array of Federal, State, Tribal, and Municipal regulations. Aquifer depletion, especially in a region expected to become hotter and drier with climate change, presents a growing problem, threatening both natural and managed ecosystems.

One way to begin approaching the complex issue of understanding and managing the OA at the regional scale is to address the problem of multiple large, disparate datasets that, as a result of being difficult to locate, are not easily combined and synthesized in a way that supports science-based decision-making and communication between and among stakeholders. The Ogallala Data Directory Project worked to identify datasets and make them easier to access with less labor-intensive searching by creating a metadata library with records corresponding to datasets located in various places online.

We located datasets using the same search methods that researchers in the region would be most likely to use. We began with broad searches using Google, and also navigated through websites devoted to Ogallala Aquifer research to find datasets and tools that did not appear in search engine results. Here, we also relied heavily upon the advice of an advisory committee, many of whom knew of websites housing multiple datasets that should be included. Once we located datasets, we added records for them to the Directory using a custom metadata form on the website. For datasets from data.gov, we used an API to create the records, rather than inputting them manually.

Project outputs include a fully searchable website housing metadata records that assist in cataloging datasets by geographic scope of coverage, time period, and data type. Metadata entries are included for hydrologic (eg aquifer saturated thickness, groundwater supply and quality), agricultural (eg the Cropland Data Layer, water use related to agriculture), and ecological (eg breeding bird surveys, playa presence and extent) data. The directory is hosted with the Ogallala Water Coordinated Agriculture Project data portal that has been built through ongoing collaboration with the Colorado State University Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory.