NWDTW 2024

The USGS Continuous Water-Quality community maintains a large network of real-time instruments. Throughout the country, the USGS is collecting over 6,000 continuous water-quality datasets at over 2,500 sites and measuring more than 8 water-quality parameters (temperature, specific conductance, pH, dissolved oxygen, turbidity, nitrate, chlorophyll, and Fluorescent Dissolved Organic Matter (fDOM)). Discover what CWQ resources are available for staff, who to contact with questions or suggestions, and what efforts are in progress. This is the 411 on Continuous Water Quality.

Best practices for beginners in continuous water quality when performing a servicing on a multi-parameter sonde.

This session will cover the various aspects of what is typically done before a discrete water-quality sample can be collected and options for project management.
It will include a general overview of the discrete water-quality sampling process, how to look up lab codes/schedules, what bottles are needed for what analysis, equipment blanks, filling out ASR's and other laboratory paperwork, site selection, assessing equipment needs, establishing field folders and various project related documents.
Target audience: Staff who are interested or new(er) to collecting a discrete water-quality sample or will be in the future.

This session will cover the various techniques and methods used to collect a discrete water-quality sample.
It will include an overview of various discrete sampling equipment, conditions the equipment is appropriate for, techniques for using the equipment, introduction to sample processing and sample preservation.
Target audience: Staff who are interested or new(er) to collecting a discrete water-quality sample or will be in the future.

Class will Break from 9:30 to 10 am.

Showing how to use flowtracker2 acoustic data to get a water temperature cross section at a site and looking at the data with the examples.

This session will cover what has to be done after a discrete water-quality sample has been collected.
It will include sample processing methods and order, sample preservation, overview of sample shipping, completing paperwork and an introduction to data review options.
Target audience: Staff who are interested or new(er) to collecting a discrete water-quality sample or will be in the future.

Phosphorus data is an integral part of numerous scientific studies due to its role as a potential limiting nutrient. This presentation will demonstrate some successful ways to achieve real-time phosphorus data and results from testing six commercially available analyzers. Results cover usage, data quality, and common issues collecting real-time phosphorus.

The USGS frequently uses external laboratories for analyses of discrete water-quality samples. For example, if a cooperator is interested in a constituent that the National Water Quality Lab (NWQL) does not analyze, the project team may identify a suitable laboratory that performs this analysis. However, if an external lab is not contracted through the NWQL, specific data management and approval procedures must be considered. Use of a non-contracted external lab may require staff to upload sample results to the National Water Information System (NWIS), and possibly complete the USGS’s formal laboratory evaluation process (LEP).

In this presentation, we will show an example workflow describing data management, LEP document preparation, QA/QC evaluation, and uploading results to WDFN through the USGS batch data loader (BDL). This workflow was developed by the California WSC Biogeochemistry (BGC) Group and uses scripting in both Python and R, and a Tableau data visualization tool to manage and evaluate external laboratory data. These tools have helped us streamline our process, saving time and reducing transcription errors. We receive numerous data files from external laboratories, and this workflow has increased the efficiency of publishing our data in NWIS. Other Centers could likely incorporate the tools we developed into their own processes to further enhance workflows for evaluating and using external laboratories.

This session will cover various aspects of shipping discrete water-quality samples to the National Water Quality Laboratory (NWQL).
It will include how to look up information on the NWQL internal website, LIMs v11, ASRs, and general information on contract labs.
Target audience: Staff who are sending discrete water-quality samples to the NWQL or will be in the future.

Do you use water-quality monitors and want to learn more about troubleshooting? This course will look at common problems with water-quality monitors and will demonstrate how to identify problems and fix them.

Considerations for deploying and working with the YSI EXO sonde.

How would you like to put satellites and the international space station to work for your water-quality projects? The availability of remote sensing tools for monitoring water quality continues to expand. This session will provide a primer on remote sensing for water quality, followed by several workflow examples based on use cases from the field. Examples will include tools developed just for you by the Remote Sensing for Water Quality project and related partnerships among Water Science Centers, the Water Mission Area, and the Hydrologic Remote Sensing Branch.

The introduction to satellites and water quality will overview types of data available from different satellite platforms including which satellites are related to which water-quality parameters. Workflows will cover where and how to access or request satellite data collection and demonstrate several tools. Examples include exploring historic and recent satellite imagery when developing a project sample plan, responding to on-the-ground conditions, and matching field data to satellite imagery. Imagery and related data products can be used to assess access for remote sites based on water levels and ice conditions. The wide spatial view can be used to confirm and track a developing algal bloom. Matching satellite data is important with prior field data, but future sampling can even be planned to coincide with some types of satellite data.

WMA tools include the “Satellite Overpass Calendar Tool” for paired satellite-field observations, the RSWQ dashboard, and improved imagery products for chlorophyll, turbidity, and temperature that are optimized specifically for water, instead of previous terrestrial products.