A one-day, hands-on, technical workshop focused on unlocking hydrologic data in Central Texas for public consumption.
From Supercomputers to Salamanders
Barton Springs is one of the jewels of Austin. As an important water resource that is part of the Edwards Aquifer, it is one of the most well-studied groundwater systems with a wide range of data and scientific information that contribute to decisions for protecting the Barton Springs Salamander and triggering drought conditions to protect drinking water supply for more than 60,000 individuals who depend on groundwater resources. Monitoring wells, creek flow stations, and precipitation allows us to track conditions within the Edwards Aquifer, but the data is not easily accessible.
The District has teamed up with the Texas Advanced Computing Center to host the first Barton Springs Hackathon! With support from the Hill Country Alliance, the Hackathon will be a fun day to learn, teach, and help make data more accessible.
A Hackathon to Save Our Springs
Here’s where you can help – we need everybody from coders to scientists to educators that can unlock the information collected from a large network of monitoring sites and help well owners and central Texas residents understand the groundwater system that feeds Barton Springs. Join a project team and lend your expertise to the challenge!
Who should attend?
Anyone with a technical, scientific or educational background who can help in the following project teams:
- Well water, stream flow, and precipitation data processing, analytics and visualization
- Web portal and query tool for well owners to identify the most relevant monitor well based on aquifer and location
- Education and awareness projects and curriculum
- Innovating our current sensor network to be IoT capable
- Creating GIS compatible data sets
Data Processing Team
Streamline downloading from sensors, uploading to data management, and processing. Compile precipitation, streamflow, and raw monitor well data into a useful format that facilitates analysis & visualization. Raw data have to be processed to remove spikes, corrected to match manual measurements, and checked for errors. Bonus points for automation!
Data Visualization Team
Show the water cycle in action above Barton Springs. Rain–> Recharge in the Creeks (recharge zone) –> Spring Flow & Wells’ Water Level Response.
Web Portal Team
Help well owners identify which Aquifer District monitor well is most applicable and closest to their well and find data on other nearby wells.
Teaching Resources Team
Create engaging teaching resources, modules, lessons that use data and visualizations developed by other project teams
Available data: BSEACD Aquifer Data page
BSEACD monitor wells
Daily water levels and sitefile with data summary (Geodatabase)
Daily water levels and sitefile with data summary (Excel)
Raw data (Individual Excel doc for each site, large zip file)
BSEACD staff maintains monitor wells that are downloaded quarterly and processed through Excel. Data comes in as 15-minute to 1-hr interval data. Corrections/shifts match manual measurements with the continuous measurements. Final datasets are daily minimums. Seeing what the time lag is and tracking aquifer response to rainfall/recharge would allow people to see how groundwater responds to rainfall events. Data are only updated manually (not real-time) 3-4 times a year. Currently, these data are not accessible on the web, but a snapshot current as of January 2017 are available here:
TWDB Groundwater Data
TWDB hosts two statewide datasets through the Water Data Interactive Map: Submitted Well Drillers Reports (well logs for wells drilled since 2003) and the Groundwater Database (water quality and water levels). They also collaborated to compile the Texas Mesonet that shows Real-time, interactive map showing current weather conditions across Texas.
LCRA Streamflow & Precip
Hydromet Interactive Map
LCRA maintains and serves up streamflow and precipitation data through the LCRA Hydromet. Streamflow and precipitation help indicate how much recharge is happening. The Hydromet is especially useful in reporting rainfall above the recharge zone.
USGS Streamflow & Lovelady Monitor Well
Texas Water Dashboard Interactive Map
USGS Gauges in District
USGS maintains and serves streamflow data for sites above and below the recharge zone on the major contributing streams. When you compare flow upstream of the recharge zone with downstream flow, it can give an indication of how much recharge is happening (Ex. Upstream Barton Creek: 100cfs, Downstream Barton Creek: 75cfs = 25cfs estimated recharge loss).