Meeting Logistics   
Attendees
Town Meeting
Agenda and Meeting Minutes
Tuesday Notes Wednesday Notes Thursday Notes
Pending Action Items
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Constituent Reports:

Senior Staff Report
Data Chiefs Report
District Chiefs Report
AO Report
Study Chiefs Report

Scott McEwen

CR Regional Computer Specialist -- Denver, CO

Welcome and Introductions/Agenda Review
Presented by: Athena Clark (Chair)

Athena Clark kicked off the meeting with a Welcome and Introductions/Agenda Review, Introduction of the ITAC members and GIO guests, and Introductions of WA WSC Staff.

Washinton Water Science Center Overview
Presented by: Gary Turney
Expected Outcome: Overview of the Washington Water Science Center

Gary provided a powerpoint presentation and overview of the Washington Water Science Center.

Washington Water Science Center IT Overview
Presented by: Thanh McCoy
Expected Outcome: Information Exchange

A powerpoint and overview was provided by Thanh

In addition Security Awareness training and Role Based Security training were discussed and updated by Paul Exter. Explaining that there will be over 100 people disconnected today for not taking Security Awareness training and on August 15 for Role Based Security training.

Office of Water Information Update
Presented by: Katherine Lins

An overview and update of the OI office and divisions was provided.

NWIS Update
Presented by: Susan Trapanese

An update and overview was provided on the following;

• NWIS 4.8 Release
• Site Type replacement
• SiteVisit (new Windows graphical user interface and database.
• EDDN – Emergency Data Distribution Network
• NWISWeb FY08 Enhancements
• NWIS 24X7 Emergency Support
• NWIS – RT
• NWISWeb had record traffic in April and May
• Help is available in the form of Training, webinars, decodes, FAQ’s, email and documentation
• Update on next year – FY09
• FY10 and beyond

Bureau IT Updates
Presented by: Paul Exter

1. Trusted Internet Connection (TIC) - DOI has the Big 9 initiative, was formally 6.  The USGS submitted a plan for 5 to OMB and we are currently waiting on the decision. There is going to be an upcoming datacall from Verizon business for items such as DSL and Cable connections. Data at Rest, It is an OMB requirement that anything mobile that has sensitive information must be encrypted.

1. Encryption - Status update - This will be rolled out in phases.  The USGS is currently working with the Department for some exemptions. The forecast is that the encryption software will be rolled out by the beginning of the year.

1. OIG Evaluation in Denver - Was in Denver 2 months ago. There was a high concentration on sensitive information. We may need to move toward a MAC address environment, so that we may get better access control.  They see IT Asset Management as critical item missing at the USGS.

1. Windows XP STIG - In the powerpoint there is a webpage link for an updated list.  The page is updated all of the time. 99% has currently been deployed.

1. ITSO IT Road Map - They are breaking out everything they do and what needs to be done. We are going to redirect our people to prioritize our work.  There are about 12 DOI mandates that could realistically take all of our staff.  This will be presented to Bob Dole.

1. DOI Security Handbook - Effective in October, to connect to the network you must have a Government issued Computer.

1. Two-Factor Authentication for Remote Access - DOI/OBM to implement two-factor authentication for remote access by December 31, 2009.

1. Standardization on Microsoft Office 2007 - To date there is no mandate for everyone to migrate to MS 2007.

1. Status of the Windows and Unix support teams
   

2. Update on Vista and progress - The DOI mandates if you are going to deploy Vista we will need a migration plan. Right now it is not as high on the radar.  XP has a sunset on June 30th.  You can buy a machine with Vista and put XP back on it at no cost. The people with Apple’s are having some issues.

1. Update on Sharepoint - Currently in the ITSO there is no enterprise support for Sharepoint.

1.  Commercial Wireless Enterprise Services - We will most likely see anything until after Christmas.  After research it was found that the current pooled minutes are a lower price then what was proposed on an enterprise contract.

1. HSPD 12 - Currently in the ID card phase of the three phases.

1. Content Filtering - Paul drafted and presented a plan for the acceptable use policy having to do with content filtering to the CIO’s.

Q&A with Water Science Center Staff

Q - I have a memory stick and I want to take it to a meeting and show my presentation, can I still do that?
A – For normal presentations, yes.  If it is a sensitive presentation that will change.

LUNCH (on your own)

WARSMP and use of MMS in Washington, an Overview
Presented by: Mark Mastin

The Watershed and River System Management Program and use of the Modular Modeling System in the Washington Water Science Center

The Watershed and River System Management Program (WARSMP) is a collaborative program with the USGS and the Bureau of Reclamation.  It was established about 10 years ago to develop modeling strategies to aid Reclamation water managers manage water resources in the current environment of many competing demands for a limited resource.  The program uses a database-centered Decision Support System (DSS) as its design model to link water-management models constructed by Reclamation with watershed models constructed by the USGS.  The Modular Modeling System (MMS) is the modeling environment used by the USGS in  WARSMP to develop custom watershed models for a particular Reclamation-managed watershed.  MMS is an interface with utilities to combine from a library of computer code representing a runoff process (module) into a fully functional watershed model with post-processing utilities for runoff forecasting, statistics, optimization, and GIS capabilities.  A pre-processing GIS assemblage of Arc/Info macro language scripts called the GIS Weasel is available to process a digital elevation model of a basin into model response units, the basic unit to the watershed model where an individual  water budget is simulated on a daily basis.  Other raster data is processed by GIS Weasel to create parameter files for the watershed models.

The Washington Water Science Center became involved with WARSMP with the Yakima River Basin about eight years ago and recently completed a project for the Potholes Reservoir Basin.  Several other Columbia River basins have been modeled with the WARSMP model using other funding sources and recently a six-basin proposal for basins within the Columbia River Basin was sent to headquarters for consideration in WARSMP.  The Yakima River Basin is presented here as an example WARSMP basin from model development to how it is used by Reclamation.  Four watershed models within the Yakima River Basin are used to generate unregulated runoff input to Reclamation’s water-management model, RiverWare, that simulates reservoir operations, diversions, irrigation, and return flows within the Basin.  The watershed models are able to forecast runoff volumes and probable runoff hydrographs at many points in the basin that allow managers to plan for the available water for irrigation in an upcoming irrigation season. The models have also been used for simulating climate change scenarios, used in habitat studies under various proposed water-storage scenarios, and for long-term planning in the Basin. 

The Washington Water Science Center hopes to expand its coverage in the Columbia River Basin to become a leader in watershed modeling in the Basin to address the many management issues in this large, highly regulated basin.  The challenge for the Center is to incorporate many individual, detailed models into one set of models that can be efficiently combined to simulate runoff over a large region and eventually provide more accurate runoff values then the existing regional models built at a relatively coarse resolution.

Thermal profiling of the Yakima River
Presented by: John Vaccaro or Matt Ely

The Yakima River flows 215 miles from the outlet of Keechelus Lake in the central Washington Cascades southeasterly to the Columbia River, draining an area of 6,155 square miles. The Yakima River Basin is one of the most intensively irrigated areas in the United States. Population in the Yakima River Basin was about 238,000 in 1990.

Increasing demands for water for municipal, fisheries, agricultural, industrial, and recreational uses will affect the ground-water resources of the basin. A better understanding of the ground-water flow system and its relation to rivers and streams is needed to effectively manage the basin's water resources.

FloodPath, real-time modeling of flood inundataion
Presented by: Joseph Jones

Mapping a Flood...Before It Happens
What’s missing from flood forecasts?
The only maps generally available today are maps used for planning. They are maps of theoretical floods, not maps of flooding forecast for an approaching storm. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and the National Weather Service (NWS) have developed a way to bring flood forecasting and flood mapping together, producing flood maps for tomorrow’s flood today, and getting them on the Internet in time for those in harm’s way to react.

WAWSC Data Program
Presented by: Bob Kimbrough

The presentation covered the following topics:

• Station network & staff
• Funding & customers
• Issues driving data collection
• Data delivery & products
• Innovative technology
• Continuous Records Processing

Multispectral habitat imaging
Presented by: Bob Black

The objective is to assess the capability of multispectral images to map aquatic and riparian habitats, Remote sensing vs. field based assessments,  compare aquatic and riparian habitats in reaches with levees and setback levees and establish baseline conditions for future levee setbacks.

Update from Western Region CTO
Presented by: Charlene Fischer

• An overview of the latest groups and activities in the WR ITSO.
• 21 Federal Employees, 4 Contractors and 1 Student, along with sever collateral duty employees.
• Enterprise Vulnerability Management System – this is used to do internal scans at the USGS.
• Role Based Security Training – annual requirement.
• We did not have a say in the number of hours of training. OMB sent out a guideline that the USGS went by.
• Please take it back to the CTO’s for the people that are required to take the additional training be able to
• Several options to get it completed, such as webex’s. If the GIO held the training and or we should be able
• Claim time we are doing things such as meeting with Paul and receiving his information.
• Q - Who is the person that decides how much credit hours you get for each class?  A - The Supervisor would make Decision on the hours spent on how much it would count toward the training.
• Enterprise Symantec Antivirus – It is recommended that you move to the enterprise product.
• VoIP – In the Western Region they are upgrading the switch. A national contract was created and is being handled by Scott Morton in Reston.
• Hawaii Network Upgrade – That will provide better connectivity between the islands.
• ESN Support Activities
• Menlo Park New Data Center – Located in Building 3. They inherited a computer room that is about 2800ft
• Help Desk– Administers WSUS/Windows System Update Services, WSMS/Windows Software
• Management Services, they also do backfilling or assistance.
• Science Support – Web Consultation, RGIO Website, Video casts, participation in myScienceSpace and they are preparing a feasibility study for Sharepoint (James Sayer).
• Site Reviews
• Performance Plan Guidance.

Future Direction of NatWeb
Presented by: Karen Klima

The NatWeb team are in the process of documenting  NatWeb as it is now using a standard approach.
There are several new drivers that are going to be guiding the future of NatWeb. 

NatWeb is a current CPIC investment. A transition plan is being creating to be put into the GIO Web Hosting and Services Catalog. The first step in FY08 is to complete an operational analysis and the current state. The step leading up to the transition plan are the initial high-level conceptual architecture, evaluate current services and Bureau need, analysis of alternatives and future conceptual architecture.

Q - Does the GIO Fund “MYUSGS”? A – Yes
Q - What are you unmet web needs
Cold Fusion, We need to have the new capabilities, such as dynamic web pages. It could be a distributed answer not just Cold Fusion.  There is a need to have the internal needs met.
David and Terri compiled a survey that was distributed to the Water asking what they feel was needed via the web/NatWeb

Terri will email the Survey results to Karen, ITAC and Atul Uchil

Some of the Survey requests were as follows:
Version Control system
IIS
Cold Fusion
Web mapping capabilities
RSS feeds
MySQL
PhP
JP Graph

The Web Advisory Group has regrouped and created a new charter and the roles. They are looking for a Governance body from each Discipline. The Web Advisory group is trying to get on the ELT’s agenda for September. Karen Wood and Karen Klima co-chair the team.  She has asked for a representative from ITAC on the group.
There is a pilot in NatWeb called “my science space” as it is called now.

There is a flow from distributed to consolidated, NatWeb could not meet the needs so now we are back to the distributed type model, however it is very difficult to set up a webpage. The offices should be able to set up a webpage, but with an eye on a what could be used in a consolidated effort. The GIO needs to take a more proactive role on communication of products that are already offered, what is being tested, what the future may hold.  It was suggested that the webpage needs to be more user friendly. Such as “Cool things you can do on NatWeb”. Or a NatWeb blog.  Part of the future staff needs to be able to monitor what is online and how can it be utilized across the USGS.

It was suggested that the GIO budget needs to be more transparent. Karen and Charlene will take that suggestion back to the GIO for comment.

Invite Stan Smith to present to ITAC

The National Map
Presented by: Alan M. Mikuni, Allyson Jason and Scott Van Hoff

Provided a briefing on The National Map, which is a major initiative of the USGS. A goal of The National Map is to provide to the Nation a seamless, continually maintained, and nationally consistent set of base geographic data. The presentation also discussed the key role played by the Geospatial Liaison network in advancing the goals of The National Map.

UNIX training update
Presented by: Jess Griffin

Provided an overview and update of the UNIX training. They have collected class evaluations and have them for a review. They have 8 people signed up for the next class. Katherine would like to have feedback from ITAC if we would like to sponsor this again next year. Shawn and Steve have agreed to teach again next year. There needs to be a class coordinator for the class. This person would need to have training so they can be registered for access within DOI learn.

We can table this subject until the next meeting, in the meantime Terri and Jess will send out a memo to Admin’s to query the field for interest, and to see if anyone has an old backup device that can be used for the class. Terri will contact Meoldy Hood, the Survey point of contact for training.

QW web services, current and future portal for retrieving QW data
Presented by: Nate Booth

Web services is about serving USGS in a standardized format, as defined by USGS and it’s community. It is also the technical side of web services that can be leveraged by various formats.

USGS and EPA are working together to provide scientists and policy-makers an easier way to integrate access to their large water-quality databases. A common suite of web services allow for the automated sharing of water monitoring data via a common format and terminology. Initial web services are now available.

A web service is a computer-to-computer protocol that allows for the direct sharing of information. The services will provide the ability to combine data from USGS’s NWIS and EPA’s STORET systems. The services will produce data formatted according to the Water Quality Exchange (WQX) Outbound XML schema, which has been developed collaboratively by EPA and USGS. Applications such as internet portals can use the web services to access data from both NWIS and the STORET Warehouse without needing an authorized database connection.

The initial set of web services provide two core methods for accessing the information in these systems. Each of these web services has different input parameters and pre-defined output formats (or schema).  Monitoring location information and associated water-quality results will be served through these two services. The Station Web Service will provide information for all monitoring locations within a given geographic area and the Results Web Service retrieves water-quality results (measurements) by site.

http://qwwebservices.usgs.gov/

Topic for Webinar - Bridging the gap between historical data formats such as WATSTORE, RDB, and web scraping  and emerging formats such as those distributed by web services.

BROWN BAG SEMINAR
Presented by: John Vacarro

Effects of climate change on ground water

New geophysical logging requirements
Presented by: Chris Leeth or Howard Perlman

The log archiver function is to archive geophysical logs, litho logic logs, text logs, images, PDFs and text. To do simple data retrieval (files and table, and to utilize utilities such as NWIS transaction files, lookups and templates.

http://logarchiver.usgs.gov/LogarchiverPresentations.htm

Oklahoma-WSC Sharepoint
Presented by: Phillip Carpenter

An update, overview including the pro’s and con’s that the OK WSC have found during their deployment of their virtual Sharepoint server.

Update - Tools & efficiency analyses used in the TX-WSC to improve efficiencies among Administration, Management, and Project Staff
Presented by: Brian Reece

A demo and update was provided to the team.
http://tx.cr.usgs.gov/admin_misc/access_sal_by_emp_pp0814.pdf

WRAP UP / ADJOURN

9:30 am

Action Items