oEPA
United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
EPA/600/R-16/218| August 2016 | www.epa.gov/research
Watershed and Economic Data
Interoperability (WEDO)
FACILITATING DISCOVERY, EVALUATION,
AND INTEGRATION THROUGH THE SHARING
OF WATERSHED MODELING DATA
Discovery
Evaluation
Administrator
publishes
WEDO shape
file to
EnviroAtlas
Publish
Desktop
Watershed
Modeling
studies to
Download
watershed
models from
WEDO
Watershed and
Economic Data
Interoperability
(WEDO)
User returns to A
WEDO from
EnviroAtlas after
selecting a stream
for detailed
evaluation and
integration
Office of Research and Development
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2
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EPA/600/R-16/218
August 2016
Watershed and Economic Data
Interoperability (WEDO)
Facilitating Discovery, Evaluation and Integration through the Sharing
of Watershed Modeling Data
John M. Johnston
Mike Galvin
Rajbir Parmar
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Athens, Georgia 30605
Catherine Foley
CSC Government Solutions, LLC, a CSRA Company
Alexandria, VA 22310
Contract HHSN316201200013W
Scientific Models, Applications and Visualization,
Computational Science and Statistical Support (SMAVCS3)
John M. Johnston-Project Officer
Computational Exposure Division
National Exposure Research Laboratory
Athens, GA 30605
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Notice
The research described in this document was funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
through the Office of Research and Development. The research described herein was conducted at the
Computational Exposure Division of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency National Exposure
Research Laboratory in Athens, Georgia. Mention of trade names or commercial products does not
constitute endorsement or recommendation for use. Although this work was reviewed by EPA and
approved for publication, it may not necessarily reflect official Agency policy.
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Foreword
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is charged by Congress with protecting the Nation's
land, air, and water resources. Under a mandate of national environmental laws, the Agency strives to
formulate and implement actions leading to a compatible balance between human activities and the
ability of natural systems to support and nurture life. To meet this mandate, EPA's research program is
providing data and technical support for solving environmental problems today and building a science
knowledge base necessary to manage our ecological resources wisely, understand how pollutants affect
our health, and prevent or reduce environmental risks in the future.
The National Exposure Research Laboratory (NERL) within the Computational Exposure Division is the
Agency's leading laboratory in environmental exposure science. NERL supports EPA's mission to
protect human health and the environment by developing and applying innovations in exposure science.
Exposure science sets the context for understanding and solving real world problems, and is used to help
understand risks that exist and was to mitigate or prevent that risk.
Watershed Economic Data Interoperability (WEDO) helps to support the mission of the NERL by
offering a new way to support discovery and integration of watershed modeling data. Through the use of
WEDO and its Web-based database, modelers can publish their detailed modeling studies to a
centralized place, which can be downloaded by other modelers for use in their various studies and
research. This is an important step forward to environmental exposure science because it allows for
further discover, evaluation and integration of watershed modeling data to help improve watershed
integrity across the United States.
EPA's Safe and Sustainable Water Resources (SSWR) research program is an overarching Agency-wide
program that provides the science and innovative technologies that the Agency and the nation need to
maintain drinking water resources and systems, as well as to protect the chemical, physical and
biological integrity of the nation's waters. It uses an integrated, systems approach to support the
availability of the clean, adequate, and equitable water supplies necessary for human well-being and
resilient aquatic ecosystems. Towards these goals, SSWR provided funding to develop WEDO as
contribution 1.3A.2 within Topic 1 "Interoperability of data and models."
Gerald Brunson, Acting Director
Computational Exposure Division, USEPA/Office of Research and Development
iv
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Table of Contents
Notice ii
Acknowledgments ix
Executive Summary
1.0 Using WEDO 1
1.1 Overview of Using WEDO 1
1.1.1 General User Tips for WEDO 3
1.1.2 Home Page For Navigation to All Functionality 9
1.2 Downloading Modeling Studies from WEDO 12
1.3 Publishing Modeling Studies to WEDO 16
2.0 WEDO for Administrators 27
2.1 Administrator Home Page Functionality 27
2.2 Administrative Tasks within WEDO 31
2.2.1 Publishing Data to EnviroAtlas 31
2.2.2 Withdrawing a Study from WEDO 33
2.2.3 Registering a New Administrator 34
3.0 References 35
4.0 Appendices 36
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Appendix A. DB Schema 37
Appendix B. Software Architecture 41
Appendix C. Information for Software Developers 43
Table of Figures
Figure 1. EPA EnviroAtlas showing stream network in blue and yellow 3
Figure 2. EnviroAtlas Interactive Map—Discovering published modeling studies 3
Figure 3. WEDO Home Page 4
Figure 4. WEDO FAQ Page 6
Figure 5. WEDO Contact Page 7
Figure 6. WEDO Utilities Page 8
Figure 7. WEDO Study Information Page 9
Figure 8. WEDO Home Page 10
Figure 9. WEDO Study Information Page 13
Figure 10. Study Details 14
Figure 11. EnviroAtlas Showing Streams with WEDO Modeling Studies in Red 15
Figure 12. Finding the Utilities Page within WEDO 17
Figure 13. WEDO Utilities Page 18
Figure 14. Choosing a Model within the Publishing Utility 18
Figure 15. Selecting the UCI File within the Publishing Utility 19
Figure 16. Choosing Input and Output Files to Publish within the Publishing Utility 20
Figure 17. WEDO Publishing Utility Processing Screen 20
Figure 18. Selecting Data to Publish within the Publishing Utility 21
Figure 19. Specifying NHD Reach Codes within the Publishing Utility 22
Figure 20. NHD Flowlines Site for Finding Reach Codes 22
Figure 21. Inserting Metadata in the Publishing Utility 23
Figure 22. Saving the Study as a Zip File 24
Figure 23. Processing Page within the Publishing Utility 24
Figure 24. WEDO Upload Study Page 25
Figure 25. Finding a Study to Upload 25
Figure 26. Finding the Log In Page for Administrators 28
Figure 27. Administrator Log In Page 29
Figure 28. View of the Administrator Home Page 30
Figure 29. Study Information Page View for Administrator 32
Figure 30. Administrator Screen for Creating a New Account 34
Figure 32. WEDO Database Schema 37
Figure 33. WEDO Software Architecture 42
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Tables
Table 1. WEDO Tasks 2
Table 2. WEDO Parameters 12
Table 3. WEDO Columns Data Types for Database Tables 38
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Acronyms and Abbreviations
CSV
Comma-Separated Values
EPA
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
HSPF
Hydrological Simulation Program-Fortran
HUC
Hydrologic Unit Code
NERL
National Exposure Research Laboratory
NHD
National Hydrography Dataset
NWIS
National Water Information System
ORD
Office of Research and Development
STORET
STOrage and RETrieval
SWAT
Soil and Water Assessment Tool
UCI
Unified Configuration Interface
WEDO
Watershed and Economic Data Interoperability
viii
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Acknowledgments
We would like to acknowledge the support of the Safe and Sustainable Water Resources research
program, especially Suzanne van Drunick, Michael McDonald and Blake Schaeffer (of the Immediate
Office of the National Exposure Research Laboratory). Without their support, WEDO would not have
come to fruition. Appreciation is also extended to Topic 1 co-leads Christopher Nietch and Matthew
Heberling of the National Risk Management Research Laboratory for guidance on evaluating the
economic feasibility of nutrient trading markets, including the interplay of traditional and non-traditional
economic models and watershed modeling. WEDO demonstrates the shared vision that new tools should
support a wide array of models and platforms and not be limited to a particular study or choice of
technology.
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Executive Summary
Watershed and Economic Data Interoperability (WEDO) is a system of information technologies
designed to publish watershed modeling studies for reuse. WEDO facilitates three aspects of
interoperability: discovery, evaluation and integration of data. This increased level of interoperability
goes beyond the current practice of publishing modeling studies as reports or journal articles. Rather
than summarized results, modeling studies can be published with their full complement of input data,
calibration parameters and output with associated metadata for easy duplication by others. Simulation
calibration parameters for a model study are a boon for modelers as these parameters are often costly in
terms of time and computational resources to determine. Reproducible science is possible only if
researchers can find, evaluate and use complete modeling studies performed by other modelers. WEDO
greatly increases transparency by making detailed data available to the scientific community.
WEDO is a next generation technology, a Web Service linked to the EPA's EnviroAtlas for discovery of
modeling studies nationwide. Streams and rivers are identified using the National Hydrography Dataset
network and stream IDs. Streams with modeling studies available are color coded in the EnviroAtlas.
One can select streams within a watershed of interest to readily find data available via WEDO. The
WEDO website is linked from the EnviroAtlas to provide a thorough review of each modeling study.
WEDO currently provides modeled flow and water quality time series, designed for a broad range of
watershed and economic models for nutrient trading market analysis. Modeling studies are packaged for
download and easy integration into work flows and to reproduce results.
EPA developed WEDO for anyone interested in publishing watershed modeling studies for wide
dissemination and reuse. EPA's STOrage and RETrieval (STORET)1 and the U.S. Geological Survey
(USGS) National Water Information System (NWIS) are examples of nationwide repositories for
sharing monitoring data on water resources. However, no such system exists for modeling studies. We
provide a number of step-by-step examples of discovery and publishing in this guide. WEDO addresses
public-access requirements for storing and publishing modeled data. The vision for WEDO is a flexible
repository for those interested in locating modeling studies and economic data necessary to evaluate the
feasibility for nutrient trading in a watershed or river basin of interest—without having to know where to
locate the information from various reports and academic literature.
1 http://www3 .epa. gov/storet/
2 http://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis
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1.0 Using WEDO
1.1 Overview of Using WEDO
A typical watershed modeling study involves a modeler running a model or models on their computer
and publishing the model results as a paper or report. This paradigm of peer review and publishing often
in a peer-reviewed journal limits reuse of the study. Without direct access to model inputs, including
initial conditions and parameters, as well as study metadata for all input data utilized and expert
knowledge used in calibration, others experience barriers to reproducing the science. These barriers are
also experienced beyond watershed modeling. For example, an analyst who wants to assess market
feasibility for nutrient trading in a watershed of interest will likely have to repeat flow and water quality
modeling because the analyst may not even know that a study for the area of interest exists. However,
even if the analyst is aware of the report, access to the detailed data beyond the published summaries
may be unavailable. Another example is that of calibration studies, a vast majority of which are
published in state and federal government reports. These and other grey literature may not be searchable
on the Internet. In addition, many journals now require as a best practice that research data for the study
be made available online. WEDO (Watershed and Economic Database for interoperability) is a
solution that enables publishing of modeling studies for evaluation, download, and leveraging by others.
Many government agencies have repositories for monitored stream flow and water quality data. EPA's
STOrage and RETrieval (STORET) and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) National Water
Information System (NWIS) are well known examples. Although monitoring data are commonly made
publicly available via repositories, currently there are no watershed modeling study data repositories.
WEDO provides a flexible, centralized, and interoperable database for multiple models, as well as Web
services for storing, retrieving, evaluating and publishing modeling output as time series. Model inputs
and study metadata are also stored in the database. While the functionality of the system will be outlined
in subsequent chapters, this chapter provides general tips for using the system. Further information about
the schematics of WEDO can be found in Appendix B.
The steps for a modeler to publish a study to WEDO are briefly described hereafter. First, the modeler
uses a publishing utility provided by WEDO that is downloaded to the modeler's desktop. More
information about the publishing utility can be found in Section 1.3. Once it is opened, the publishing
utility presents a series of dialogs to collect information to more fully describe the study. The modeler
selects river(s) and stream networks that correspond to the study. The modeler is then instructed to
standardize the stream numbers by mapping the stream identifiers to the National Hydrography Dataset
(NHD) reach codes. Finally, all inputs along with the self-selected model outputs (water flow, dissolved,
and suspended constituents for example) and metadata are uploaded to WEDO. A study on WEDO is
labeled "Pending" status at the time of upload. An administrator periodically may decide to publish the
studies with "Pending" status on WEDO to EPA EnviroAtlas.3
To publish studies to EnviroAtlas, the administrator generates a Comma Separated-Values (CSV) file
and sends the file to EnviroAtlas team by email. The CSV file contains study information: reach code,
web link to the study stored in WEDO and a list of simulation constituents. The EnviroAtlas team loads
the CSV file to its NHD map layer. The status of studies included in the CSV file changes to
3 http://www.epa. gov/enviroatlas
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"Publishing" as soon as the file is generated. After confirming that the file has been published on
EnviroAtlas, the administrator changes the status of studies with "Publishing" status to "Published"
status. A study in "Publishing" or "Published" status cannot be withdrawn. Only a study with "Pending"
status can be withdrawn, and this can be completed only by an administrator. A modeler can send an
email to one of the contacts listed on the contact page requesting a "Pending" study to be withdrawn, or
to request that a published study be changed to "Pending" and then withdrawn. More information about
withdrawing a study can be found in Section 2.2.2.
Within WEDO, there are a number of tasks that can be undertaken by modelers, investigators and
administrators. These tasks are outlined in Table 1 below.
Table 1. WEDO Tasks
Tasks
Modelers
Download Publishing utility, run publishing utility
and publish model data on WEDO, send email to
WEDO administrator to withdraw a study
Investigators
Discover streams of interest on EnviroAtlas, visit
WEDO Web pages to view dashboard, study
summaries, study details, download study data
Administrators
Log in, add administrator(s), withdraw a study,
generate CSV file to publish studies on
EnviroAtlas, email CSV file to EnviroAtlas team,
for publishing, change status of "Publishing"
studies to "Published," respond to issues reported
by researchers and modelers
Information discovery is a major aspect of interoperability. EnviroAtlas4 is EPA's main interface to
communicate with communities (Figure 1). Publishing WEDO data on EnviroAtlas enhances
discoverability (Figure 2). The other two major aspects of interoperability are Evaluation and
Integration. WEDO facilitates evaluation by providing graphical interfaces to search and query
summarized and detailed data. WEDO facilitates integration by providing data download and upload
services.
4 EnviroAtlas (https://www.epa.gov/enviroatlas') provides interactive tools and resources for exploring the benefits people
receive from nature or "ecosystem goods and services". Ecosystem goods and services are critically important to human
health and well-being, but they are often overlooked due to lack of information. Using EnviroAtlas, many types of users can
access, view, and analyze diverse information to better understand the potential impacts of various decisions.
2
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H 0 ITl 6 Welcome to Webo Application
ffi!- Home
::: Study Information
Upload Study
Utilities
© FAQ
B Contact
Watershed and Economic Database for Inter operability (WEDO) provides a
flexible, centralized, interoperable database and web services for storing,
retrieving, evaluating, and publishing watershed and economic modeling
studies. Study data include model outputs as time series, model inputs, and
simulation metadata. Model calibration data can also be included. A modeler
can upload modeling study data using WEDO provided publishing utilities and
web services. WEDO site administrators can publish study information to the
EPA EnviroAtlas.
Study Status Information To EnviroAltas
The following boxes display study information count based on the study status.
Pending - Studies
Pub ished - Studies
Publishing - Studies
Withdrawn Studies
Recent Uploaded Studies
O
Study Status Information: Percentage
O
O
Maike O Galvin ©6/16/20166:04:57 AM
uploaded HSPF model Study.
Mark H Gray ©6/16/2016 6:02:26 AM
uploaded HSPF model Study.
Parmar H Gray ©6/16/2016 5:58:11 AM
uploaded HSPF model Study.
Studies - Pending
33%
X Quick Links
T Features
T References
Enviro Altas Application Link
Standard format to upload
Studies
EPA Communications
Styiebook, 2009
System lets you view Study list
& details
Research & Development
Reports Handbook
Export & Publish Studies to
EnviroAtlas
System lets you withdraw
uploaded Studies
Integrated application with
EnviroAtlas
Download complete Study
Information
Figure 3. WEDO Home Page
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A more detailed description of the functionality of the home screen and how it supports discovery within
WEDO can be found in Section 1.1.2.
The Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page (Figure 4) contains commonly asked questions and serves
as an evolving source of information for modelers and researchers within WEDO. This page includes
sample output file formats, as well as a sample metadata file formats.
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FAQ / -;do application faq
* Home Q
Sample study data format.
Hi Study Information
[Qsampleout.zip
X upload Study ffll„puK.zip
Ei Metadata.txt
Ejdataliles.csv
i. Utilities
"© FAQ
i Contact Sample Metadata file format.
Author Firsti First Name
Author Middle:
Author Lasti Last Nama
Author Emaili user0email.com
Author Phonal 7778889999
Organizations Soma Organization
Date model executedi 2014/09/11 17i02
Model Start Date: 2009/09/30 00:00
Model End Date: 2010/10/01 00:00
Model Name:
Modal version numbar:
Dascription: Just a test
Constituentsi FL0W,NH3N
Correlation Coefficient FLOW: 1.1
Nash-Sutcliffe FLOW: 2.2
Correlation Coefficient TSSi 3.3
Nash-Sutcliffe TSSi 4.4
Correlation Coefficient TKN: S.5
Nash-Sutcliffe TKNi
Correlation Coefficient N03-N: 7.7
Nash-Sutcliffe N03-N:
Correlation Coefficient ORGNs 9.9
Nash-Sutcliffe ORGNi
Correlation Coefficient P04-P: 11.11
Nash-Sutcliffe P04-P:
C# Sample application to upload study ouput files to WEDO application.
public class Program
{
public static string postUrl = "http://localhost:62538/Study/Upload";
public static string file s "C:/Workspace/IPP/Sample Output Files/SaladoOutputPul
public static string responseStr;
static void Main()
try
postWebData();
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
Console.WriteLine("Exception + ex.ToStringO);
}
>
public static void postWebData()
{
Random rand = new Random()j
string boundary = " boundary" + rand.Next().ToString()j
Stream data_stream;
byte[] header = System.Text. Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes("\r\n-boundary
+ "\r\nContent-Dispositions form-data; name=filej filenames\""
+ System.10.Path.GetFileName(file)
+ "\"\r\nContent-Type: application/octet-stream\r\n\r\n")j
byte[] trailer = System.Text.Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes("\r\n--" ~ boundary * "¦
// Do the request
HttpWebRequest request = (HttpWebRequest)MebRequest.Create(postUrl) ;
roquest.UserAgent s "Sample Standalone App";
request.Method = "POST";
request.KeepAlive ~ true;
request.ContcntTypc = "multipart/form-data; boundary:" ~ boundary;
data_stream = request.GetRequestStream();
data_stream.Write(header, 0, header.Length);
byte[] file_bytes = System.10.File.ReadAllBytes(file);
data_stream.Write(file_bytes, 0, file_bytes.Length);
data_stream.Write(trailer, 0, trailer.Length)J
data_stream.Close();
Console.WriteLine("Sent Request");
// Read the response
WebResponse response = request.GetResponse();
data_stream = response.GetResponseStream();
StreamReader reader = new StreamReader(data_stream);
responseStr - reader.ReadToEnd();
Console.WriteLine("Reading Response");
if (responseStr = "") { responseStr = "No response i("; )
Console.MriteLine("Response:{0}", responseStr);
reader.Closa();
data_stream.Close();
response.Close();
Figure 4. WEDO FAQ Page
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The FAQ page will be updated periodically to reflect new frequently asked questions to help support
modelers and researchers within WEDO.
The "Contact Us" page (Figure 5) includes the relevant contacts for any questions in relation to using
WEDO. This is the key page for modelers and researchers if they experience an issue and would like to
report it, or if they have a question about using the system. A researcher or modeler can use the contact
information to withdraw a study that is waiting to be published to the EnviroAtlas.
ft Home
is: Study Information
£ Upload Study
£ Utilities
© FAQ
Contact
Contact Wedo application contact information
@ Wedo Application Contacts.
John M. Johnston
Chief, Watershed Exposure Branch
USEPA/Office of Research and Development
NERL/Computational Exposure Division
960 College Station Rd.
Athens, GA 30605
Phone: +01706 355 8300
Fax: +01 706 355 8302
Email: Johnston, JohnM
Rajbir Parmar
Computer Scientist, Watershed Exposure
Branch
USEPA/Office of Research and Development
NERL/Computational Exposure Division
960 College Station Rd.
Athens, GA 30605
Phone: +01706 355 8306
Email: Parmar, Rajbir
Figure 5. WEDO Contact Page
If someone would like to withdraw a study from WEDO, a request needs to be submitted to the WEDO
administrator. This can be done by sending an email to one of the addresses on the "Contact Us" page.
Note that only studies marked as "Pending" can be withdrawn. A request to withdraw a study already
published on EnviroAtlas would be treated as an exception that requires manual tasks. More information
about withdrawing a study can be found in Section 2.2.2.
The Utilities page (Figure 6) has links to download publishing utilities. Currently, there is only one
publishing utility that can publish modeling studies from Hydrological Simulation Program-Fortran
(HSPF) and Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) models. This will be an evolving page as new
utilities become available.
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ft Home
::: Study Information
Upload Study
& Utilities
© FAQ
Utilities Download publishing utilities.
V? Download Links
:: Download HSPF & SWAT Publishing Utility
Note
The Publishing Utilities desktop application is used to format
modeling data and upload the information to WEDO.
Download and install to use the Publishing Utilities program.
iS Home Utilities
Figure 6. WEDO Utilities Page
The Study Information page (Figure 7) allows investigators to search for and explore studies in the
WEDO database. Studies can be searched for by author email, constituent or parameter, publication
status or watershed hydrologic unit.
8
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Webc
Log in
Home
Study Information
Upload Study
£ Utilities
© FAQ
Study Information Displays report of all study information
Home Study Information
Search Studies
Find:
Go!
HUC8
Search Value
Use the search box(above) to explore studies in the
WEDO database.
Search for published studies by:
o author email
o constituent
o publication status
o watershed hydrologic unit
Study will be assigned one of the following status:
o Pending
o Widthdrawn
o Publishing
o Published
NHD(USGS) Hydrologic Units: HUC 2 Regions
Study Summary
Author
Name
Orgnization
Model
Name
Model Start Dt
Model End Dt
Constituents
Status
Action
Maike 0
Galvin
EPA
HSPF
9/30/2009
12:00:00 AM
10/1/2010
12:00:00 AM
Pending
Details
MarkH
Gray
EPA
HSPF
9/30/2009
12:00:00 AM
10/1/2010
12:00:00 AM
Published
Details
Parmar H
Gray
EPA
HSPF
9/30/2009
12:00:00 AM
10/1/2010
12:00:00 AM
Publishing
Details
Showing 1 to 3 of 3 entries
<— Previous 1 Next —*¦
i ±j
Figure 7. WEDO Study Information Page
The map on the Study Information page orients the researcher to understanding the geographic location
of the stream, using the two-digit Hydrologic Unit Code (HUC) number on the map above. The Study
Information page is useful for modelers and researchers because it helps them discover numerous studies
in their area of interest that can be further evaluated and downloaded for use.
1.1.2 Home Page For Navigation to All Functionality
The home screen (Figure 8) is the starting point for using WEDO to search, evaluate and
upload studies.
9
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H 0 ITl G Veicome to Webo Application
¦ w Home
::: Study Information
£* Upload Study
Utilities
© FAQ
8 Contact
Watershed and Economic Database for Inter operability (WEDO) provides a
flexible, centralized, interoperable database and web services for storing,
retrieving, evaluating, and publishing watershed and economic modeling
studies. Study data include model outputs as time series, model inputs, and
simulation metadata. Model calibration data can also be included. A modeler
can upload modeling study data using WEDO provided publishing utilities and
web services. WEDO site administrators can publish study information to the
EPA EnviroAtlas.
Study Status Information To EnviroAltas
The following boxes display study information count based on the study status.
Pending - Studies
Published - Studies
Publishing-Studies
Withdrawn Studies
Recent Uploaded Studies
Study Status Information: Percentage
O
©
O
Maike O Galvin ©6/16/2016 6:04:57 AM
uploaded HSPF model Study.
Mark H Gray ©6/16/2016 6:02:26 AM
uploaded HSPF model Study.
Parmar H Gray © 6/16/2016 5:58:11 AM
uploaded HSPF model Study.
Studies - Pending
33%
T Quick Links
T Features
T References
Enviro Altas Application Link
13
Standard format to upload
Studies
EPA Communications
Stylebook, 2009
System lets you view Study list
& details
Research & Development
Reports Handbook
Export & Publish Studies to
EnviroAtlas
System lets you withdraw
uploaded Studies
Integrated application with
EnviroAtlas
Download complete Study
Information
Figure 8. WEDO Home Page
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The left-side navigation bar provides navigation to the system functionality. Links are provided for
Home, Study Information, Upload Study, Utilities, FAQ and Contact Us pages. On the bottom of the
home screen, there are sections that provide further information about the status of studies being
uploaded to EnviroAtlas. These sections help support discovery, integration and evaluation by providing
information about the number of studies in the process of being uploaded to WEDO and EnviroAtlas.
The home page serves as both a starting place for navigation within WEDO as well as dashboard that
allows the modelers and investigators to see how many studies have been published or are pending
within WEDO. The "Study Status Information to EnviroAtlas" section provides the investigator with
information regarding how many studies are in the four stages of publishing, which are "Pending,"
"Publishing," "Published," and "Withdrawn." These boxes outline all studies within these stages in
WEDO, not only the individual modeler's studies. To find out more information about each of these
categories, the researcher can click on "More info" at the bottom of each box.
The "Recent Uploaded Studies" box on the lower left-hand part of the home page allows the user to see
studies that have been uploaded to WEDO recently, which helps with discovery by allowing users to
look at new studies and keep track of their own studies that have been uploaded.
The "Study Status Information" graphic on the lower right-hand corner of the home page provides a
visual representation of the percentage of studies that have been published to WEDO. For example, in
Figure 8 above, there is 1 study published and 1 study pending, so the Home page says that 50% of the
studies are published.
The "Quick Links" section provides relevant links to the EnviroAtlas Application. EnviroAtlas provides
visual links (color-coded stream reaches) to studies that can be used to download study data from
WEDO. More information about downloading modeling studies from WEDO can be found in Section
1.2. The "Features" section provides an overview of the key features of WEDO, which includes the
ability to view study list and details as well as export and publish studies to EnviroAtlas. The
"References" section provides links to key resources that may help guide people to additional
information. This list will evolve over time to include further resources to support the use of WEDO by
modelers and researchers.
The publishing utility can be downloaded by navigating to the Utilities page. These publishing utilities
are used to publish data to WEDO. The process of publishing data to WEDO can be found in Section
1.3.
In the upper right hand corner of the home screen, the administrator can log in to the system, which
allows them to perform administrative tasks. If someone would like to become an administrator, the user
will have to email one of the contacts on the "Contact Us" page.
11
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1.2 Downloading Modeling Studies from WEDO
In general, when a modeling study is published in a paper or other publication, modelers and researchers
can access only a summary of the study itself, while the detailed input and output data remain with the
modeler. This scenario is useful to provide an understanding of modeling studies that exist, but it does
not support discovery or integration of data in their own work or workflow. This limitation is often due
to lack of access, non-standard data formats, non-standard units, and differences in terminology, among
other issues.
Increasingly, users of modeling studies as well as peer-reviewed journals are asking for more
transparency in relation to data. WEDO alleviates this problem by making modeling studies accessible
to modelers and researchers through the download function. By doing so, WEDO directly supports
evaluation by allowing modelers and researchers to query and view detailed modeling study data and
metadata.
Within WEDO, there are a number of parameters that are included within the data that can be
downloaded from each study. The parameters within WEDO are outlined in Table 1 below.
Table 2. WEDO Parameters
Parameter
Definition
Flow
Stream flow
TSS
Total suspended solids
TKN
Total Kjeldahl Nitrogen
NH3-N
Ammonia-Nitrogen
N03-N
Nitrate Nitrogen
N02-N
Nitrite Nitrogen
ORGN
Organic Nitrogen
P
Total Phosphorus
12
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Parameter
Definition
P04-P
Soluble Reactive Phosphorus
PP04
Particulate Phosphorus
These parameters are important because they allow for flexibility of use. For example, someone may be
running a modeling study on water quality on a specific stream. The user can go into WEDO and find
studies relating to this stream and download the data that relates specifically to water quality. Within
WEDO, the user is not required to download the entire study if only a portion of it is needed.
There are two ways to search for data within WEDO. Firstly, the user can search directly on the WEDO
site searching by reach code or metadata information. Secondly, the user can browse EnviroAtlas for
streams that have modeling data published on WEDO. When the user clicks on a published stream on
EnviroAtlas, a pop-up comes up showing the reach code, a list of modeled water quantity, quality, and
economic parameters, and a hyperlink pointing to the corresponding stream web site on WEDO. The
user can click on the hyperlink to navigate to the WEDO Web page showing a list of studies
corresponding to the stream. The user can also note down the reach code from EnviroAtlas and can then
enter the reach code for the stream into WEDO to view corresponding studies.
To search for a modeling study within WEDO, the user should click on "Study Information" on the left-
hand navigation bar. This will bring the user to the Study Information page (Figure 9) that shows all the
studies available in the system.
Wfic
Study Information
2, t V vl • .
JL Utilities
0 FAQ
Study Information o»i
Study
Search Studies
Find: - Select Field -
Use the search box' above) to explore studies in the WEDO database.
Search for published studies by:
• author email
° publication status
• watershed hydrologic unit
Study will be assigned one of the following status:
o Pending
• Widthdrawn
o Publishing
o Published
NHO(USOS) Hydrologic Units: HUC 2 Regions
Study Summary |JM|, II^JinT^
Author Name
* Orgnization
Model Name
Model Start Dt
Model End Dt
Constituents
Status
Action
Mark H Gray
AQUA TERRA Consultants
HSPF
9/30/200912:00:00 AM
10/1/201012:00:00 AM
FLOW
Publishing
Details
Mark H Cray
AQUA TERRA Consultants
HSPF
9/30/200912:00:00 AM
10/1/20101230:00 AM
FLOW
Published
Details
Figure 9. WEDO Study Information Page
13
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The user can search for studies using the search bar at the top and search for studies by metadata, NHD
reach code, HUC 12, and HUC 8. Once the user searches using a parameter, the studies that match this
parameter will be listed under "Study Summary" at the bottom of the screen. To learn more about these
studies, the user can click on "Details" under the "Action" column, which will expand to show the Study
Details page (Figure 10).
Weio
Study Details
H Home Study Information
# Home
Hi Study Information
£ Upload Study
J. Utilities
0 FAQ
8 Contact
Study Details
Study ID:
Model
Name:
Maike
1068
HSPF
Model
Calibrated:
9/30/2009 12:00:00 AM
Just a test
First
Name:
Last
Name:
Model
Start
Date:
Description
Organization: EPA
Model
V*5i<",: Model
Executed:
9/11/2014 5:02:00 PM
Calvin
mg8lvin@>dquaterr3,com
10/1/201012:00:00 AM
Middle
Initial:
Email:
Model End
Date:
Study Calibration
Constituent
Calibration Parameter
Value
FLOW
Correlation Coefficient
1.10000002384186
FLOW
Nash-Sutdiffe
2.20000004768372
N03-N
Correlation Coefficient
7.6999998092651<
N03-N
Nash-Sutdiffe
ORGN
Correlation Coeffident
9.89999961853027
ORGN
Nash-Sutdiffe
P04-P
Correlation Coeffident
11.1099996566772
PQ4-P
Nash-Sutdiffe
TKN
Correlation Coefficient
53
TKN
Nash-Sutdiffe
Showing 1 to 10 of 12 entries
~— Previous I 2 Next —»
jj i -J
Study Constituent
Export Output Data
ReachCode DateTime FLOW TSS TKN NH3-N
No data available in table
Showing 0 to 0 of 0 entries
Search:|
N03-N N02-N ORGN P P04-P PPO0 SED
~— Previous Next —~
Figure 10. Study Details
14
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The study details page has a number of sections outlining the Study Details, Study Calibration and Study
Constituent. On this page, the user can look through study metadata, calibration statistics and time series
data for each modeling parameter or constituent.
The user can download the study by clicking on "Download Study" button on the upper right of the
Study Details page. When a user clicks the "Download Study" button, there is the option to download
the whole study or download one or more constituent. When downloading the whole study, this includes
the input zip file, the metadata file and all the output data. Investigators have the option of saving the file
as either CSV or XML. The user can also click on the "Export Output Data" section under "Study
Constituent" to download only the Export Data for the particular study.
As mentioned above, investigators can also view where WEDO-published watershed modeling was
completed using a map layer on EPA's geo-spatial website EnviroAtlas. The user can search for a
specific location in EnviroAtlas to find the streams of interest. Within EnviroAtlas, streams that have
modeling studies within WEDO are marked as red on the map, as shown in Figure 11.
Contents
Modeled Data Available
No Modeled Data Available
@ Topographic
WEDO Data: Streamflow
ComID 24,432,603
WEDOdata Streamflow
WebLink http://www.epa.gov/
Bridger
ArcSIS Marketplace Help Terms of
Figure 11. EnviroAtlas Showing Streams with WEDO Modeling Studies in Red
Once the person finds the stream of interest in red, the user can click on the stream itself to see the
parameters where modeling data is available. The user can click on the hyperlink provided in the pop-up
to navigate to the WEDO study information page. As described above, the user can then click "Details"
15
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under the "Action" column to interrogate the data further and download it for use.
1.3 Publishing Modeling Studies to WEDO
WEDO is a unique tool because it has a standardized Web-based database that allows modelers to
publish their detailed modeling studies, including input data, calibration data and model outputs, to a
centralized place. Publishing modeling studies to WEDO is the key component that supports
interoperability among those who use WEDO because it allows other modelers and researchers to
download this data, evaluate it, and use the data to support their own studies. The studies that modelers
publish to WEDO are a useful source of information, and knowledge-transfer may support further
development of watershed models by other researchers.
The quality of data is important when publishing data to WEDO. While the integrity of the data is
ensured by the WEDO administrator, quality control is not a component of the WEDO process.
Therefore, it is important that the user ensure the quality of the data before publishing it to WEDO. To
ensure that the data being uploaded is of the highest quality, quality control could be included in the
workflow of the user prior to uploading data to WEDO. By making sure sufficient quality control is
performed before publishing, the user makes certain that the studies will be useful for modelers and
researchers who wish to download these studies to integrate into their work.
To publish data to WEDO, a publishing utility is needed. This is a program that runs on the modeler's
desktop and allows the user to create a zip file of the user's study that will later be uploaded to WEDO
using a Web service provided by WEDO. To download the publishing utility, click on "Utilities" on the
left-hand navigation bar on the home screen (Figure 12).
16
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« Home
::: Study Information
£ Upload Study
£ Utilities
© FAQ
i r.nta'"
Home Welcome to Webo Application
Watershed and Economic Database for Inter-Operability (WEDO) provides a
flexible, centralized, interoperable database and web services for storing,
retrieving, evaluating, and publishing watershed and economic modeling
studies. Study data include model outputs as time series, model inputs, and
simulation metadata. Model calibration data can also be included. A modeler
can upload modeling study data using WEDO provided publishing utilities and
web services. WEDO site administrators can publish study information to the
EPA EnviroAtlas.
Study Status Information To EnviroAltas
The following boxes display study information count based on the study status.
Pending-Studies
Published - Studies
vViilnii iwn Studies
Publishing- Studies
Recent Uploaded Studies
Study Status Information: Percentage
O
©
O
Maike 0 Galvin ©6/16/2016 6:04:57 AM
uploaded HSPF model Study.
Mark H Gray ©6/16/20166:02:26AM
uploaded HSPF model Study.
Parmar H Gray 06/16/2016 5:58:11 AM
uploaded HSPF model Study.
Studies - Pending
33%
Quick Links
T Features
T References
Enviro Altas Application Link
~
*
Standard format to upload
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*
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uploaded Studies
Integrated application with
EnviroAtlas
~J*
Download complete Study
Information
G?
EPA Communications
Stylebook, 2009
C7
Research & Development
Reports Handbook
Figure 12. Finding the Utilities Page within WEDO
17
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This will take you to the "Utilities" page (Figure 13) where you can download the publishing utility
needed to publish your modeling study. Currently, only one utility for publishing data to WEDG is
available. This utility can be used to publish IiSPF and SWAT model data to WEDO. When the user
clicks the "HSPF and SWAT data publishing utility" hyperlink on the "Utilities" page, the utility
executable called WEDO.Publish.exe is available for download, and can be saved on the user's
computer to publish the user's modeling study at any point.
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is: Study Information
!S Download HSPF & SWAT Publishing Utility
~
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The Publishing Utilities desktop application is used to format
modeling data and upload the information to WEDO.
Download and install to use the Publishing Utilities program.
S Contact
Figure 13. WEDO Utilities Page
Note that the "Utilities" page will be an evolving page, and utilities for more models will be added to the
list as they become available.
When the user runs the publishing utility, the wizard will pop up on the screen. The user is prompted to
click which type of model to publish, either HSPF or SWAT (Figure 14).
WEDO Publishing Utility
Choose Model to Pub ish
SWAT
Figure 14. Choosing a Model within the Publishing Utility
If the user chooses HSPF, then the wizard prompts the user to select the appropriate UCI
(Unified Configuration Interface) file (Figure 15). The UCI file is used to determine the list
of input files, units and output files. To select a UCI file within the publishing utility,
search for the file on your computer. Once you have identified the file, click "Open."
18
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I Select HSPF UCI file
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2/25/2014 10:44 AM
2/14/2014 4:58 PM
3/24/2014 6:39 PM
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Figure 15. Selecting the UCI File within the Publishing Utility
Once the UCI file is chosen by the user, the publishing utility automatically chooses the input and output
files. These files are outlined separately in the sections "Input Files to Publish" and "Output Files to
Publish" (Figure 16). All input files are available for WEDO to publish, but a user can choose which
streams to publish as an output file. For example if a study contains information for 15 streams but the
user wants to include only 2 streams as output data, the user can choose these streams under the "Output
Files" section. If there are other components that are not captured in the UCI files, the user can choose to
add these by clicking either "Add Input Files" or "Add Output Files." For example, the user may choose
to upload the entire model if this is likely to be useful for other modelers and researchers.
Once the input and output files have been chosen, click "Next.'
19
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m
WEDO Publishing Utilitv
Jnjxj
—Choose Input and Output Rlesto Publish
r Input Files to Publish
0 C:\dev\SUSTAIN\atcSUSTAIN'iest\Salado_EX\SaladoCreek_HSPF1 B_try 142.uci
0 C:\dev\S U STAl N\atc S U STAI N''test\Salado_EX\SaladoCreek_1 Dhsprf .wdm
0 C :\dev\S U STAI NSatc S U STAI N'iest\Salado_EX\SaladoCreek_10Loads .wdm
0 C:\dev\S U STAI N\atcS USTAI NMest\Salado_EX\SARA_M ET_With Depo .wdm
Add Input Files...
Output Files to Publish Data From
0 C:\dev\S USTAI N\atcS USTAI NMest\Salado_EX\SaladoCreek_1 Chspf.wdm
0 C:\dev\SUSTAINSatcSUSTAIN'4est\Salado_EX\SaladoCreek_HSPFlDP.hbn
0 C:\dev\SUSTAIN\atcSUSTAINMest\Salado_EX\SaladoCreek_HSPF1DI.hbn
0 C:\dev\SUSTAIN'\atcSUSTAINMest\Salado_EX\SaladoCreek_HSPFIOR.hbn
Add Output Files... | Next
Figure 16. Choosing Input and Output Files to Publish within the Publishing Utility
Within the publishing utility, the user will see that the inputs and outputs are processing (Figure 17).
Opening C:\dev\S IJ STAI N\atc S U STAI NMest\Salado_EX\SaladoCreek_H SPFIOP.hbn
Figure 17. WEDO Publishing Utility Processing Screen
Once the input and output files have been processed, the user is prompted to select the attribute data to
publish. On this screen (Figure 18), the user chooses the streams to publish and which parameters to
include. By using the drop down menus at the top of the screen, the user can choose the stream first, and
then the parameters.
B
WEDO Publishing Utilitv
~ Processing
20
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Select Data to Publish
File Attributes Select Help
Select rttribute Values to Filter Available Data
| History 1
from SaladoCreek_1 Ohspf.wdm
from SaladoCreek HSPFIDR.hbn
~3\ Location
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R: 110
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R:130
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R:150
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FLOW
FLOW
r Dates to Include
All
Start none
End none
Common
none
none
I- Apply month/day range to each year
I- Change Time Step To: fi [Day | Accumulate/Divide
Ok
Cancel
Figure 18. Selecting Data to Publish within the Publishing Utility
Once the data to publish has been chosen, click "Ok" at the bottom of the screen.
Within WEDO, NHD reach codes are used to identify the streams to be published. Using the
standardized NHD stream identification numbers is important for maintaining consistency among
various models that are being published. The user selects stream segments that include the location of
model simulation output. While numerous stream reaches are present within the broader study area
watershed, the model output typically represents simulated data at specific locations within the
watershed.
While some modelers and researchers may already know the NHD reach codes for their streams, others
may know only local identification numbers. If a user knows the NHD reach codes for the user's
streams, they can be entered on the screen depicted in Figure 19, next to the relevant model stream ID
The box should be checked under "Publish" for each stream model the user would like to publish to
WEDO.
21
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m
WEDO Publishing Utility
¦ ~] x|
Specify NHD Reach Code of Streams to Publish
Model Stream ID Publish
SUB010
SUB10Q
NHD Reach Code
W |11111
F
22222
Find NHD Reach Codes
Next
Figure 19. Specifying NHD Reach Codes within the Publishing Utility
If the user does not know the NHD reach codes for the user's streams, clicking "Find NHD Reach
Codes" will bring the user to the NHD Flowlines graphical interface for mapping streams to NHD
stream reach codes (Figure 20). Note that this interface opens in a separate Internet browser window and
is not a part of the WEDO interface.
IHD Flowlines
Figure 20. NHD Flowlines Site for Finding Reach Codes
Once the user comes to the NHD Flowlines site, the user can search for the stream of interest by entering
the address or places in the search bar at the top of the page. Once the stream is identified on the map,
the user can click on the stream to find the NHD reach code. Upon finding the NHD reach codes for all
relevant streams'^ to be published within WEDO, the user should return to the publishing utility and
enter this information. Once this information has been entered, the user should click "Next."
Once the appropriate reach codes have been entered for the streams, the publishing utility brings the user
to the page where the user is asked to enter the relevant metadata for the modeling study (Figure 21).
This metadata includes author name and contact details, organization name, and a brief description of
the study. This information is required within the WEDO publishing utility.
5 It is up to the modeler to ascertain which reaches are relevant to a study. Hydrologic model output typically includes
streamflow and water quality time series simulations at specific locations. Model output often represents a single watershed
outflow point but may also include model results for a set of subwatershed pour points (known as "HRUs" or "Reaches" in
semi-distributed models SWAT/HSPF).
22
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] WEDO Publishing Utility
Metadata
Rrst
Author Name [Mark
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|H
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Author Phone |4M-555-1212
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Model Calibration (Optional)
Correlation Coefficient
FLOW
TSS
TKN
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N03-N
N02-N
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P
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1.1
3.3
5.5
7.7
9.9
11.11
Nash-Sutcliffe value
|22
4.4
6.6
10.10
12.12
Save
Figure 21. Inserting Metadata in the Publishing Utility
The user is able to enter model calibration information at the bottom of the metadata screen. This is not
required within the WEDO publishing utility but can be included if the user thinks it is helpful.
Once the metadata has been entered, click "Save" at the bottom of the screen.
Once all the information for the study to be publi shed has been entered into the publishing utility,
individuals are prompted to save the study as a zip file (Figure 22). WEDO takes all the inputs that were
entered and saves this as an individual zip file, and then zips that file with the metadata and output file
23
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§§ Save in zip file
- Computer - Local Disk (C:) - dev - SUSTAIN - atcSUSTAIN - test - Salado_EX -
ml Search Salado_EX
Organize
Save
-
-------
Once the user saves the zip file of the study to the local computer, it is time to upload it to the WEDO
site. The user should return to the WEDO site and click "Upload Study" on the left-hand navigation bar,
as shown in Figure 24. This will bring the user to the page for uploading the zip file that was created
using the publishing utility.
Upload Study Upload your study output files
Home Study Information
# Home
EE: Study Information
Upload Study
tm Utilities
© FAQ
Upload
Upload Study Data Zip File:
Note
We strongly recommend use of the WEDO publishing utility to ensure proper formatting of
the data being uploaded.
Uploaded zip file must contain inputs.zip, Metadata.txt, data file l.txt....
Figure 24. WEDO Upload Study Page
By clicking "Browse" on this page, the user can search for and choose the zip file of the modeling study
to be publishing, as shown in Figure 25.
Home
sis Study Information
2. Upload Study
Utilities
© FAQ
S Contact
Upload Study
Upload
Upload Study Data Zip File:
[ Browse... | No file selected.
Note
Please make sure the the zip file follows the following format,
inputs^ip, Metadata.txt, data file l.txt ....
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Figure 25. Finding a Study to Upload
25
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Once the zip file is chosen, by clicking submit, the modeler submits the specific study to the WEDO
database. The uploaded study automatically assumes "Pending" status in the database. The WEDO
administrator periodically publishes all studies in "Pending" status to the EnviroAtlas site. The
administrator then confirms that the studies have been successfully published on EnviroAtlas and
changes the status of the studies to "Published." Modelers and researchers will be able to search for this
information on the "Study Information" page.
26
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2.0 WEDO for Administrators
The WEDO administrator is a key component to supporting the discovery, evaluation, and integration of
watershed modeling data using WEDO. The WEDO administrator function helps to support data
integrity within the tool by providing a streamlined process for tracking the status of studies that have
been uploaded by WEDO users. Unlike non-administrators who are unknown within the WEDO
database, administrators access WEDO using security credentials and are able to undertake a number of
actions to maintain system integrity.
There are various tasks within WEDO that can be completed only by a WEDO administrator, and are as
follows:
• Publishing a study to EnviroAtlas
• Receiving and processing a request to withdraw a study that is marked as "pending"
• Changing the status of a study from "pending" to "publishing"
• Changing the status of a study from "publishing" to "published" once it has been uploaded to the
EnviroAtlas NHD map layer
• Adding new administrators to WEDO
The process and rationale for undertaking these various tasks within the administrator function of
WEDO will be explained in the following sections.
2.1 Administrator Home Page Functionality
The WEDO home page for administrators is accessible only for those who hold administrator rights to
the site. To obtain administrator rights, a request needs to be submitted to the WEDO administrator by
sending an email to one of the addresses on the "Contact Us" page.
An administrator can log in to the system by clicking the "Log in" button on the top right hand corner of
the home page (see Figure 26).
27
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Home Welcome to Webo Application
¦ft Home
::: Study Information
£ Upload Study
£ Utilities
© FAQ
3S Contact
Watershed and Economic Database for Inter operability (WEDO) provides a
flexible, centralized, interoperable database and web services for storing,
retrieving, evaluating, and publishing watershed and economic modeling
studies. Study data include model outputs as time series, model inputs, and
simulation metadata. Model calibration data can also be included. A modeler
can upload modeling study data using WEDO provided publishing utilities and
web services. WEDO site administrators can publish study information to the
EPA EnviroAtlas.
Study Status Information To EnviroAltas
The following boxes display study information count based on the study status.
Pending - Studies
Pub ished - Studies
Withdrawn - Studies
Publishing - Studies
Recent Uploaded Studies
Study Status Information: Percentage
0
O
O
Maike O Galvin ©6/16/2016 6:04:57 AM
uploaded HSPF model Study.
Mark H Gray ©6/16/20166:02:26 AM
uploaded HSPF model Study.
Parmar H Gray ©6/16/20165:58:11 AM
uploaded HSPF model Study.
Studies - Pending
33%
T Quick Links
T Features
T References
Enviro Altas Application Link
Standard format to upload
Studies
GT
EPA Communications
Stylebook, 2009
System lets you view Study list
& details
G*
Research & Development
Reports Handbook
Export & Publish Studies to
EnviroAtlas
System lets you withdraw
uploaded Studies
Integrated application with
EnviroAtlas
Download complete Study
Information
Figure 26. Finding the Log In Page for Administrators
28
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Clicking "Log In" will bring the administrator to the Sign In page (Figure 27) where there will be a
prompt to enter the administrator's email address and password.
Sign In
Email test@gjnail.com
Password ••••••••
E Remember me?
Login
Figure 27. Administrator Log In Page
Once the administrator enters appropriate log in information, the administrator will be directed to the
Home Screen for administrators (Figure 28). This page looks nearly identical to the normal home screen,
but the administrator's email address will appear, along with a "Log off button in the top right corner.
Clicking on the "Log off button logs the administrator out of the system and automatically navigates
back to the main WEDO home page for non-administrators.
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Hetlotest@gmail.com! Logoff
¦ft Home
H: Study Information
Upload Study
¦£. Utilities
© FAQ
BS Contact
Home Welcome to Webo Application
Watershed and Economic Database for Inter operability (WEOO) provides a
flexible, centralized, interoperable database and web services for storing,
retrieving, evaluating, and publishing watershed and economic modeling
studies. Study data include model outputs as time series, model inputs, and
simulation metadata. Model calibration data can also be included. A modeler
can upload modeling study data using WEDO provided publishing utilities and
web services. WEDO site administrators can publish study information to the
EPA EnviroAtlas.
Study Status Information To EnviroAltas
The following boxes display study information count based on the study status.
1
Pending - Studies
More info©
1
Published - Studies
More info©
1
Publishing - Studies
More info Q
0
Withdrawn - Studies
More info O
Recent Uploaded Studies
O
Study Status Information: Percentage
O
O
Maike O Galvin ©6/16/2016 6:04:57 AM
uploaded HSPF model Study.
Mark H Gray ©6/16/2016 6:02:26 AM
uploaded HSPF model Study.
Parmar H Gray ©6/16/20165:58:11 AM
uploaded HSPF model Study.
Studies - Pending
33%
X Quick Links
X Features
X References
Enviro Altas Application Link
Standard format to upload
Studies
Figure 28. View of the Administrator Home Page
&
EPA Communications
Stylebook, 2009
The home page serves as both a starting place for navigation within WEDO as well as dashboard that
allows the administrator to see how many studies have been published or are pending within WEDO.
The ring on the lower right hand side of the Dashboard displaying pending studies is dynamic. The
administrator can move the cursor on a section of the ring corresponding to a status to display number of
studies in that status. The page also displays recently published studies on the lower left-hand side. The
administrator can click on the author link in a study to navigate to the study information page.
Due to the fact that the administrator accepts the studies to be published to EnviroAtlas and monitors
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withdrawal requests, this dashboard provides a useful means for the administrator to keep track of
studies in the various stages of publishing.
2.2 Administrative Tasks within WEDO
As mentioned above, there are various administrative tasks that can be performed by the administrator
within WEDO, including publishing data to EnviroAtlas as well as withdrawing a study from WEDO.
These tasks help to support discovery, evaluation and integration of watershed modeling data by making
the information more accessible to modelers and researchers for use in their own studies.
2.2.1 Publishing Data to EnviroAtlas
The key administrative task to be performed by the WEDO administrator is publishing data to
EnviroAtlas. This is a key component of the discovery WEDO aims to support for modelers and
researchers, and is important for sharing studies.
When a modeler or researcher has submitted a study to be published, it is marked as "Pending" within
WEDO, as shown in Figure 29. Once a study is marked as pending, it shows up on the administrator
dashboard and is available to be published to EnviroAtlas. If the user is not logged in as an
administrator, the "Action" column will not be visible.
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Wedo
t@gmail.com!
Study Information Oisplaysreport of all stuci « Horn, Study Information
# Home
IU Study Information
1 Upload Study
Utilities
0 FAQ
S Contact
Search Studies
Find: Author Email
parmaf
• Use the search box(above) to explore studies in the
WE DO database.
> Search for published studies by:
o author email
o constituent
publication status
watershed hydrotogic unit
» Study will be assigned one of the following status:
Pending
Widthdrawn
o Publishing
Published
NHD(USGS) Hydrotogic Units: HUC 2 Regions
Study Summary
Mark Select Stud»e^ Published I Withdraw Select Studk
Author
Name
Model
Orgnixation Name
Model Start Dt Model End Dt
EPA
Parmar H
Gray
Showing 1 to 1 of 1 entries
HSPF
9/30/2009
12:00:00 AM
10/1/2010
12:00:00 AM
- Previous 1
Constituents Status Action
Publishing Details
ii
Figure 29. Study Information Page View for Administrator
After the study has been published to WEDO by the modeler and is marked as "Pending," the
administrator periodically creates a CSV file of selected "Pending" studies to be published and sends the
file to the EnviroAtlas team for publishing. (Criteria used to select the studies for publishing are
discussed later in this section.) The Study Information shows the "Export CSV file for EnviroAtlas
Publishing" button when the administrator is logged in. The administrator clicks the button to generate a
CSV file which is then emailed to the EnviroAtlas team for publishing. Once the file is sent to the
EnviroAtlas team, the study moves into the "Publishing" phase, and the study's "Publishing" flag is
turned on within WEDO. At this point, the study will show up in the "Publishing" category on the
WEDO administrator dashboard.
The CSV file has three fields: REACHCO, WEDOdata, and WebLink. Please note that EnviroAtlas
requires field names to be less than or equal to eight characters. REACHCO is the stream Reach Code,
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WEDOData is a text string listing available flow , water quality, and economic parameters for the stream
segment, and WebLink is a WEDO website hyperlink pointing to the "Study Information" page
displaying studies related to the stream segment.
Once the EnviroAtlas team confirms that the study is published to their NHD map layer, the
administrator must click a button titled "Mark Selected Studies Published" within WEDO to toggle the
"Published" flag, which confirms that the study is officially published. At this point, the study is
available on the EnviroAtlas tool to be discovered by EnviroAtlas users.
The administrator can choose when to publish the pending studies to EnviroAtlas based on a number of
factors. For example, the administrator may want to wait for multiple studies to be completed before
sending them to EnviroAtlas so many can be sent at once or may wish to wait until the study has been
on the WEDO site for a few months to ensure it is complete. The time frame for uploading studies to
EnviroAtlas is flexible based on the administrator's needs, and can be done at any point once a study is
marked as "Pending."
By allowing the administrator to publish studies to EnviroAtlas, WEDO helps support discovery and
integration by making data and modeling studies readily available to the public. Users can interrogate
studies that are published as well as pending. Discovery is a key goal of WEDO, and publishing these
studies allows them to be shared and used by other modelers and researchers across the United States.
2.2.2 Withdrawing a Study from WEDO
After a modeler has submitted a study to be published to WEDO, a modeler can request to withdraw the
study. A modeler or researcher may wish to withdraw a study from WEDO for a number of reasons; the
data may have been incomplete, the data may have been incorrect, or it may have been published before
it was ready. Regardless of the reason for submitting a withdrawal request, only those studies that are
marked as "Pending" can be withdrawn. A withdraw request for a published study can be handled as an
exception to WEDO work flow. The administrator may access the database directly to change the study
status to "Pending" and then withdraw the study as described above. There are several possible side
effects of withdrawing a published study. EnviroAtlas may have a broken hyperlink pointing to the
WEDO Study Information page of the withdrawn study if the withdrawn study were the only study for
the corresponding stream. Even if other studies exist for the stream, they may not include all the
parameters listed in the pop-up the modeler or researcher sees after clicking on a published stream on
EnviroAtlas. Furthermore, if the administrator has to manually change a "Published" study to "Pending"
in order to withdraw it, the administrator would be required to republish the studies onto EnviroAtlas to
repair broken links from EnviroAtlas to WEDO.
The administrator monitors requests to withdraw a study. Once a modeler or researcher submits a
request to the administrator to withdraw a study by contacting the administrator via the "Contact Us"
page, the administrator will choose to accept or deny the withdraw request and remove the study, as
needed.
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2.2.3 Registering a New Administrator
Requests to become a WEDO administrator are monitored and approved by existing WEDO
administrators. Once a new administrator has been accepted, the WEDO administrator logs in and adds
them as an administrator. Note that only administrators that are logged in can access the
Accounts/Register page (Figure 30) to add a new administrator.
Register
Create a new account.
Email
Password
Confirm
password
Register
Figure 30. Administrator Screen for Creating a New Account
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3.0 References
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 2015. "EnviroAtlas."
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 2014. "STORET/WQX."
U.S. Geological Survey, 2016. "National Water Information System."
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4.0 Appendices
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Appendix A. DB Schema
The WEDO database is implemented in Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 database management system. The database design has been
normalized to minimize data redundancy. Table and field names as well as relationships are shown in the database diagram (Figure 31)
below.
Study
MX
parameter
unitSingular
unitPlural
study Jd
fileName
inputFiles
Ca I i brati on Pa ra meter
^ study_id
^ oonstituentjd
^ calibration_parameterJd
value
constituent
description
unitsjd
study Jd
reachCode
dateTime
constituentjd
value
Units
inputFile
Calibration
Constituent
ConstituentValue
description
organization
modelName
modelVersion
modelCalibrated
dateModelExecuted
modelStartDate
modelEndDate
contactEmail
Status
contactFirstName
contactMiddlelnitial
contactLastName
contactPhone
dateCreated
Figure 31. WEDO Database Schema
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Table and field names as well as relationships are shown in the database diagram (Figure 31). The
following table (Table 3) shows column data types for database tables.
Table 3. WEDO Column Data Types for Database Tables
Table
Column
Data Type
Study
id
int
description
Varchar(max)
organization
Varchar(50)
modelName
Varchar(50)
modelVersion
Varchar(50)
modelCalibrated
bit
dateModelExecuted
datetime
model StartDate
datetime
modelEndDate
datetime
contactEmail
Varchar(50)
contactFirstName
Varchar(50)
contactMi ddl elnti al
Char(l)
contactLastName
Varchar(50)
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contactPhone
Varchar(50)
Status
Varchar(50)
Units
id
int
unitSingular
Varchar(50)
unitPlural
Varchar(50)
InputFile
Study_id
int
fileName
Varchar(50)
inputFiles
Varbinary(max)
Constituent
id
int
constituent
Varchar(50)
description
Varchar(lOO)
unitsid
int
C onstituent V alue
study_id
int
reachCode
Varchar(20)
dateTime
Varchar(50)
constituents
int
value
Decimal(18,4)
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CalibrarionParameter
id
int
parameter
varchar(50)
Calibration
study_id
int
constituents
int
calibrationParameterid
int
value
float
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Appendix B. Software Architecture
The architecture of the WEDO software (Figure32) has three logical layers: Desktop models, the WEDO
database web site, and the EnviroAtlas web site. Navigation and information flows between the layers
has been shown by arrows in the architecture diagram. The desktop models layer contains utilities for
publishing modeling studies on the WEDO database web site from desktop computers. All publishing
utilities have been developed using Microsoft .NET framework 4.0 and VB.NET programming
language. In addition, the WEDO publishing utilities use an ArcGIS.com online interactive map
(http://arcg.is/1CLE YX). This map allows users to discover stream NHD flowline ReachCode
identification numbers using the EPA Office of Water watersgeo NHDPlus v2.1 ArcGIS map service.
The WEDO web site itself consists of three logical groups of software: database, RESTful web services,
and web forms/pages. All software for the WEDO web site has been developed using Microsoft .NET
framework 4.0, MVC5, and C# programming language. A combination of SQL/T-SQL has been used to
perform database programmatic operations. Microsoft Visual studio 2015 was used as the Integrated
Development environment (IDE) for developing WEDO web site. The WEDO web site provides tools
to publish summary data to EPA EnviroAtlas which is not part of WEDO but makes the data
discoverable by a wider audience. EnvrioAtlas is part of the EPA GeoPlatform developed on the ESRI
technology stack.
A prototype implementation can be accessed from within the EPA firewall here:
http://134.67.114.8/wedo
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EnviroAtlas
WEDO
Sn^filu is
NHD+ sSre-sm
network w^h
i'JBWftiPV
modeling
results
WEDO
ShapeSe
Publish
EnviroAtlas
User Interface
(WEDO Layer)
User reluma 1o WEDO after sel scling ¦» stream
lor di-:ailwd data discovery ^
WEDO Database Website
Model Data Publishing Web
Services: Model to WEDO
EnviroAtlasLayer Publishing
Interface and related services:
WEDO to EnviroAtlas(Adrnin
Access}
Data Download User Interface
and Related Services
Data Discovery and Evaluation
User Interface and Related
Utilities
Relational Database
Economic Moctefcr downloads Rcr« & Nut risen dzia far selected
stream!- to perform econornsc ansfyv3. Economic model n»3i.iits
publlstad ?o WEDO.
[>¦513 *5
for yser
Desktop Watershed Models
lelerred
I V.U.P
Publish HSrF
\
Desktop Economic Models
\
Polish E^7
Figure 32. WEDC) Software Architecture
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Appendix C. Information for Software
Developers
(1) Development Environment: Microsoft Visual Studio 2015 was used in the development of
WEDO. C# version 4.0 was the development language.
(2) Database Management System: Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 is the WEDO DBMS.
(3) Modeling data publishing utility for HSPF and SWAT were developed using Visual Studio 2015
and VB .NET.
(4) Source code repository for WEDO is available at EPA GitHub.
http s://github. com/U SEP A/WED O. git
To gain access to the private EPA github repository contact Rajbir Parmar
Parmar.Raibir@epa.gov.
Deploying the web application yourself:
1. In the WEDO application edit the web.config file connection string to match your
database server requirements.
2. A backup database image is provided in the database folder. The backup needs to be
restored to your SQL Server installation. You may need to grant database access
permission to the WEDO application running in IIS (e.g., IIS
APPPOOLVDefaultAppPool).
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vvEPA
United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
PRESORTED
STANDARD POSTAGE
& FEES PAID EPA
PERMIT NO. G-35
Office of Research and
Development (8101R)
Washington, DC 20460
Offal Business
Penalty for Private Use
$300
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