New Feature - Explore USGS Water Data
This new feature is used to search and filter through data by locations and data collection categories in WDFN.
Locating and filtering data by specific parameters is now available in WDFN! Explore USGS Water Data provides users with a dynamic tool to filter and locate monitoring locations and water data that meet their needs.
 available at Explore USGS Water Data from the area surrounding Lake Tahoe. Results have been filtered to continuous and discrete sample data collected at Surface Water and Groundwater locations for the past 5 years. In addition, data have been filtered to Temperature and pH. Locations that match the filters are available in the scrolling list to the right of the map.](https://staging.waterdata.usgs.gov/blog/static/intro_explore_usgs_water_data/intro_explore_usgs_water_data_overview.png)
Explore USGS Water Data is now available in WDFN. This is an example of filtered results available at Explore USGS Water Data from the area surrounding Lake Tahoe. Results have been filtered to continuous and discrete sample data collected at Surface Water and Groundwater locations for the past 5 years. In addition, data have been filtered to Temperature and pH. Locations that match the filters are available in the scrolling list to the right of the map.
Explore USGS Water Data is a map tool with multiple filters available to help you refine a list of locations and find water data that meet your needs. Use the search bar at the top of the map to find an area where you are interested in learning about what water data are available in WDFN.
Filter options are available to refine your search to identify monitoring locations that match your needs for data collection category, time range of data collection, location type, and optional filters for specifying specific parameters or key words.
While the USGS National Water Dashboard displays the latest water conditions in context of ongoing weather events or hazards, Explore USGS Water Data provides the ability to explore both current and historical water data that are available in WDFN. Learn more about how this page, as well as other new features, fit into the WDFN ecosystem .
Key Features
The WDFN team talked to legacy users and evaluated website analytics to determine the initial features to include in Explore USGS Water Data. The new Explore USGS Water Data is intended to provide a way for users to filter down to locations that have the data collection category and parameters they need. Highlighted features include:
- View locations and location types (Surface Water, Groundwater, Spring, Atmospheric, and Other) using the map. Users can zoom in and out to focus on different areas of interest and select location types with the filter options. When you select a location on the map within a certain location type, all other locations in that group will be identified in blue in the map.
- Filter data by a specific geographic location or area of interest through a zip code, state, town, or geographic feature search. Change the base map to see imagery or topography, or add HUC basin delineations to the map.
- Select categories of data collection that meet your needs. Continuous data and discrete sample data are available now, with plans to add field measurements and daily data in the future. Learn more about the categories of data collection available in WDFN.
- Select the time range for data collection to refine locations to those that have data available within the last 120 days, 1, 5, 10, 20 years, or all possible years of data collection.
- Further filter locations based on the parameters for which they have available data. You can select up to five keywords, which represent groups of USGS parameter codes, or enter any number of specific USGS parameter codes (pcodes). Some examples of keywords include: temperature, pH, acidity, and turbidity.
- View the list of locations that match your filter settings next to the map.
- Select individual locations within the list or on the map to view matching results and a link to visit the Monitoring Location Page.
- Add locations to My Favorites to export the locations that meet your filter criteria
Exploratory Options
Explore USGS Water Data combined with the National Water Dashboard provides users with flexible options to locate and use available water data. The following table describes the best use cases for the National Water Dashboard or Explore USGS Water Data.
Table 1: Comparing Exploratory Maps
| Explore USGS Water Data (Now available!) | National Water Dashboard |
|---|---|
| Users select specific time ranges to explore current and historical water data available in WDFN. | Users see the latest weather and hazard data. |
| Users focus on an area of interest by entering search criteria including zip code, state, town, or geographic feature. | Users focus the map on a specific area of interest to view real-time water information. |
| Users select between five location types (surface water, ground water, spring, atmospheric, or other) to focus results. | Users view some general information about specific sites within an area of interest. |
| Users enter up to five keywords (example: temperature, pH, turbidity) to view targeted information. | Users view at-a-glance colors indicating how the latest values of a single data type compare to historic medians. |
What’s next?
In the future, we plan to add additional data collection categories , such as daily data and field measurements to Explore USGS Water Data as the services to support those data are modernized. We also plan to add improved download functionality to WDFN, which will be accessible through Explore USGS Water Data and use My Favorites for refining the data you want to download. This will support the user journey of one of the four main user types in WDFN, the Explore & Download User .
As we build out additional functionality on Explore USGS Water Data, it will eventually serve as a replacement for NWIS Mapper. NWIS Mapper is expected to be decommissioned in the winter of 2025/2026 as part of NWISWeb Decommission Campaign 2. Learn more about decommission plans and how the pages you use may be affected in our blog post .
Our team uses user-centered design processes to determine what to prioritize next. Let us know if you have any comments about this new tool by emailing wdfn@usgs.gov .
Related Posts
New Feature - SensorThings API
August 3, 2023
SensorThings coming soon to WDFN. Use the SensorThings API to access national-scale data for quicker application development and the ability to map those results. This API provides users with a flexible way to interconnect data, devices, and application over the Web.
New Feature - All Graphs
June 6, 2023
We are excited to announce that a new feature is now available to Monitoring Location Pages as part of our modernization efforts. The All Graphs page will show a series of individual graphs of all current sensor data collected at a single location.
New Feature - Combined Location Graphs
April 19, 2023
Graphing data for multiple locations on a single graph is here! As part of our modernization effort, we are happy to announce a new page from Water Data for the Nation.
Highlights from our 2024 WDFN User Survey
February 6, 2025
In October 2024 we asked people to answer a few questions about how they use Water Data for the Nation (WDFN), and over a thousand of you answered.
New Feature - Data Collection Categories
January 30, 2025
USGS water data is collected at monitoring locations either by automated sensors or manual data collection. Prior to 2024, Water Data for the Nation (WDFN) primarily focused on delivering the data collected via automated sensors as our most popular data access category.