Data Elements for Ground-Water Sites
Date: Wed, 09 Sep 1998 09:42:11 -0400
From: Velvie E Stockdale
Reply-To: "Velvie E Stockdale, Office Automation Assistant, Reston, VA"
Organization: USGS
To: " WRD Archive File, "
CC: Velvie Stockdale
Subject: OGW Technical Memorandum 98.02
NOTE: The ^ that is throughout this document means to
superscript whatever follows, the numbers that
were supposed to be subscript could not be shown as such.
In Reply Refer To: September 1, 1998
Mail Stop 411
OFFICE OF GROUND WATER TECHNICAL MEMORANDUM NO. 98.02
SUBJECT: Data Elements for Ground-Water Sites
This memorandum describes Mandatory and Recommended data elements
for ground-water sites in the Ground-Water Site Inventory (GWSI)
for the purpose of standardizing the informational content of
GWSI. Entry of mandatory and recommended data elements into GWSI
as described in this memorandum applies as of the date of this
memorandum. However, data elements designated as 'Planned' are
scheduled for future releases of the National Water Information
System (NWIS) and would be entered once these data elements can
be populated in GWSI.
Background
Three categories of data are populated with ground-water site
information in GWSI. The first category consists of mandatory
data elements. Mandatory data elements are those that must be
populated to establish a site in NWIS and to enable entry of
other data into the system. The second category consists of
recommended data elements. The minimum recommended data elements
are those data elements in GWSI that provide additional basic
information about a ground-water site. Input of these elements
is strongly recommended. The third category consists of other
data elements, which are all of the remaining data fields
available in GWSI. These data enhance the basic information
about the site and are populated in GWSI to the extent available.
Mandatory and Recommended Categories
Mandatory data elements: Sixteen data elements for a ground-water
site must be populated to establish a site in NWIS and to enable
entry of other data into the system (table 1).
Table 1. Mandatory ground-water data elements
[GWSI, Ground-Water Site Inventory; HUC, Hydrologic Unit Code;
GMT, Greenwich Mean Time; GIS, Geographic Information System; The
component number in GWSI associated with each data element is
included for reference (Mathey, 1989)]
__________________________________________________________________
Mandatory data element (Component Comment
number in GWSI)
__________________________________________________________________
Source agency code (C4)
Site identification (C1)
Station name (C12)
Latitude (C9)
Longitude (C10)
Latitude and longitude accuracy (C11)
Horizontal datum (C36) Scheduled for NWIS
release 3_1.
Method of determining horizontal Scheduled for NWIS
datum (C35) release 3_1.
State (C7)
County (C8)
HUC (C20) Not mandatory until
link to GIS becomes
available.
Station type (C802)
GMT offset (C813)
Data reliability (C3)
Site type (C2)
Use of site (C23)
__________________________________________________________________
Recommended data elements: Fifteen data elements for a ground-
water site are strongly recommended for entry into GWSI (table
2). Some recommended data elements, if populated, also must
include a subset of mandatory data elements associated with that
recommended data element. The recommended data elements are
those that provide additional basic information about a ground-
water site: for example, owner of the well, information about the
installation and construction of the well, information about
subsurface geohydrologic units at the site, and water levels.
Table 2. Recommended ground-water data elements and related
mandatory and recommended subsets.
[GWSI, ground-water site inventory; The component number in GWSI
associated with each data element is included for reference
(Mathey, 1989)]
__________________________________________________________________
Recommended Mandatory subset Recommended subset
data element (Component number in (Component number
(Component GWSI) in GWSI)
number in GWSI)
__________________________________________________________________
SITE FILE
Project code (C5)
Altitude of site Date altitude determined
(C16) (Planned) ^2
Altitude method (C17)
Altitude accuracy (C18)
Source of altitude
(Planned) ^2
Altitude datum (C22) ^1
Date of inventory
(C711)
Use of water (C24)
Hole depth (C27)
Depth of well Date measured or Measurement accuracy
(C28) reported for any new (Planned) ^2
record (Planned) ^2 Source of depth data
(C29)
CONSTRUCTION
Construction Completion date
data (year/month) (C60)
Method of construction
(C65)
Source of data (C64)
Hole data Depth to the top of hole Depth to bottom of hole
interval (C73) interval (C74)
Hole diameter (C75)
Source of data
(Planned) ^2
Casing data Top of casing (C77) Diameter (C79)
Casing material (C80)
Source of data
(Planned) ^2
Openings data Depth to top of interval Depth to bottom of
(C83) interval (C84)
Type of opening (C85) Source of data
(Planned) ^2
MISCELLANEOUS
Owner data Owner name (C161) Date of ownership
(C159)
Logs data Type of log (C199) Flag that log exists in
(includes a separate data base,
geologic and with links to that
geophysical record (Planned) ^2
logs)
DISCHARGE
Discharge data Discharge (C150) Measurement accuracy
Measurement method (Planned) ^2
(C152) Source of data (C151)
Date discharge measured
(C148)
Type of discharge (C703)
GEOHYDROLOGY
Geohydrologic unit Unit identifier or name Contributing unit
data (C93) (C304)
Source of data
(Planned) ^2
WATER LEVELS
Water-level data Water level (C237) Site status (C238)
Measurement method Agency (Planned) ^2
(C239) Month and day measured
Water-level accuracy (C235)
(C276) Time of measurement
Year of measurement (C709)
(C235)
Source of water-level
measurement (C244) ^1
Altitude of site (C16)
Date altitude determined
(Planned) ^2
Altitude method (C17)
Altitude accuracy (C18)
Source of altitude
(Planned) ^2
Altitude datum (C22) ^1
__________________________________________________________________
^1 Scheduled for NWIS release 3_1.
^2 Scheduled for a future NWIS release.
Reference Cited
Mathey, S.B. (editor), 1989, National Water Information System
Users Manual, Volume 2, Chapter 4, Ground-Water Site
Inventory System: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 89-
587, 227 p.
/s/ K.J. Hollett for
William M. Alley
Chief, Office of Ground Water
Distribution: A, B, FO, PO