Integrated Hydrology + Data Science

Office of the Delaware River Master

The Challenge

In 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a Decree in State of New Jersey v. State of New York and City of New York in which the Court established the position of the Delaware River Master. The Court directed that the River Master perform multiple duties and functions including administering the provisions of the Decree relating to yields, diversions, and releases; conserving the waters of the river; compiling data on the water needs of the parties; checking and correlating streamflow measurements and records; observing, recording, and studying the effect of developments in the watershed on water supply and other uses; and making periodic reports to the Court. Since 2007, the Decree Parties have unanimously agreed to a series of Flexible Flow Management Program agreements. On October 21, 2017, the Parties to the Decree (DE, NJ, NY, NYC, PA) signed the 2017 Flexible Flow Management Program (FFMP2017). FFMP2017 is a two-part, ten-year agreement, which guides the current operations of the ODRM. The data included in the FFMP need to be publicly accessible, easy to download, and displayed on a web page.

Our Solution

Generate scripts to download data from USGS Aquarius database.

Design and develop a content framework and database including

  • Multiple data download options
  • Data visualizations for streamflow data, diversions, and reservoirs
  • Ability for ODRM staff to easily upload new reports and update content

Build an interactive map dashboard of data collected for ODRM

  • Visualize data at USGS gaging stations

Automate weekly data report process

What We Did

Data Integration

Data Visualization

Science Communication

Web Development

Web Map Development

Tools We Used

AmCharts

Craft

Javascript

Leaflet

MySQL

Twig