Esri has built the framework for a rivers and streams map that makes real-time stream and river gauge information accessible to ArcGIS Online users.
The Live Stream Gauges map is part of the Living Atlas of the World, which Esri is curating. It includes maps and layers from the ArcGIS user community. When you open the map and click a point on a stream or river, you will see live height and flow data.
For example, when you click the Roanoke River at Shawsville, Virginia, you will see the current height and flow of the river, which on one recent afternoon was 1.21 feet high with a flow rate of 170 cubic feet of water per second.
The Live Stream Gauges map will be very useful, said Daniel Siegel, who works on the Esri Hydro team. Local governments can use it for forecasting floods in their areas and planning emergency response to the flooding. State governments can take the information into account when making water allocation decisions during a drought. Environmental groups can use the data to monitor ecosystem health.
And the general public can use it to figure out where the river conditions are good for fishing, kayaking, or other recreational activities, Siegel said.
The Live Stream Gauges map receives data from 15,000 gauges operated by the United States Geological Survey (USGS), the US Army Corps of Engineers, the State of Washington Department of Ecology, Maricopa County, Arizona, and San Joaquin County, California. Creating this map is the first step toward building an international map. The amount of data available depends on participation by contributors.
You can contribute too. If your organization’s stream gauge data is on the web, let us know and we will do the rest. Simply e-mail the URL to streamgauges@esri.com. If you would like to share other types of authoritative content with the global GIS community, e-mail communitymaps@esri.com.