HIS Glossary and Acronyms List

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Modified on 2010/08/11 17:35 by kimschreuders Categorized as Uncategorized

» HIS Glossary and Acronyms List

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1 - HIS Defined Terms
   1.1 - Symbol and A thru F
   1.2 - G
   1.3 - H
   1.4 - I thru N
   1.5 - O thru P
   1.6 - Q thru T
   1.7 - U thru Z
2 - Other HIS Related Terms
   2.1 - Symbol and A thru F
   2.2 - G
   2.3 - H
   2.4 - I thru N
   2.5 - O thru P
   2.6 - Q thru T
   2.7 - U thru Z

1 - HIS Defined Terms¶

1.1 - Symbol and A thru F¶

Term	Definition
3rd-party Web Services	A web service that produces WaterML from a data source other than a standard ODM. One type of WaterOneFlow web service.
Concept Tree	A tree structure of searchable concepts used for data discovery.
Concept Network	Similar to a Concept Tree except each child concept can have more than one parent concept.
CUAHSI Water Data Federation	The group of all of the Water Data Services registered at HIS Central.
CUAHSI Water Data Service	Depreciated term, use WaterOneFlow web services instead.
~~Curated Metadata Layer~~	dtarb suggests to discontinue this term. It is superceded by Thematic Dataset
DASH	"Data Access System for Hydrology", Map-based web server application that is part of both HIS Central and each HIS Server.
Data Cart	A list of data series metadata. Useful for identifying parameters for a GetValues call.
Data Cutoff Time	The last date/time from which data could be used in making the forecast "forecast time". The time to which the forecast applies.
Data Series	A set of numerical values (each associated with a datetime) that describe a given variable at a given location over a given time period, using a given method, measured by a given source, and characterized by a given quality control level. This terminology arises from the Observations Data Model. See also the definition of Time Series.
Data Value	A single observation that results in a data value collected using a single type of measurement, at a single place and time. In ODM this value is either a single real number, or a categorized value.
Digital Watershed	Data repository that contains an ODM, a grid store & a shapefile store.

1.2 - G¶

Term	Definition
Geospatial Data Layer	Represents the geographic location of features, as well as attributes describing those features. Example implementations of a geospatial data layer include an ESRI shapefile of land use classification, and a Web Feature Service showing the location of water quality sampling stations. In these common implementations, the geospatial data layer is presented to the user in the form of a table, where each row in the table represents a unique geographic feature such as a sampling station. The row will be tied to a geographic representation such as a point, line, or polygon, and may also have attributes such as StationName to further describe the feature.
GetSeriesInBox	A method from the HIS Central web services for getting a list of the identifying parameters for a group of time series.
GetSiteInfo	One method from a WaterOneFlow web service that takes a site number, and returns the site's metadata as an XML text.
GetSiteInfoObject	One method from a WaterOneFlow web service that takes a site number, and returns the site's metadata as an object.
GetSites	One method from a WaterOneFlow web service that takes an array of site numbers, and returns the site metadata for each one as an object for WaterOneFlow 1.0, and as XML text for WaterOneFlow 1.1.
GetSitesXml	One method from a WaterOneFlow web service that takes an array of site numbers, and returns the site metadata for each one as XML text.
GetSitesObject	One method from a WaterOneFlow web service that takes an array of site numbers, and returns the site metadata for each one as an object.
GetValues	One method from a WaterOneFlow web service that takes a site number, a variable, a start date, and an end date, and returns a time series as XML text.
GetValuesObject	One method from a WaterOneFlow web service that takes a site number, a variable, a start date, and an end date, and returns a time series as an object.
GetVariableInfo	One method from a WaterOneFlow web service that takes a variable code, and returns the variable's name as an object.
GetVariableInfoObject	One method from a WaterOneFlow web service that takes a variable code, and returns the variable's siteName as an object.

1.3 - H¶

Term	Definition
HDAS	Hydrologic Data Access System - an obsolete name for DASH.
HIS Central	The package of components of HIS whose domain is the entire HIS system. Primary components are: • HIS Central Registry • HydroSeek • HydroTagger • HIS Central Harvester • HIS Central Data Store (Database(s)/Ontology Files)
HIS Central Data Store	Consists of a database and a set of ontology files.
HIS Central Harvester	A component of HIS Central that periodically crawls the registered Water Web Services and records their metadata in the HIS Central Data Store.
HIS Central Registry	A web application at HIS Central that allows data publisher's to register their Water Data Services and all users to view info on the registered services.
HIS Central Sourcecode Repository
HIS Desktop	Depreciated term, use HydroDesktop instead.
HIS Developer’s Wiki	This wiki.
HIS HydroLink Development Website
HIS Server	Depreciated term, use HydroServer instead.
HIS System	The entire operational hydrologic information system. Consists of the following packages: • HIS Central • HIS Server • HIS Desktop
HIS User’s Forum
Hybrid Web Service	See Third-party Web Service
HydroDesktop	A GIS and data client application/framework. Functionality from the following components are being merged into HydroDesktop: • HydroExcel • HydroGet • HydroLink • FetchWaterML • HydroObjects
HydroSeek	A map-based web application for data discovery at HIS Central.
HydroServer	The package of components of HIS whose domain is a single water data service. Primary components are: • ODM Database • ODM WaterOneFlow Webservices • ODM Tools • ODM Data Loader • ODM Streaming Data Loader
HydroTagger	A web application to assign variables to search concepts that runs out of HIS Central.
HydroViewer	Web application built by ESRI as part of the HIS System.

1.4 - I thru N¶

Term	Definition
Issue Time	The date/time the forecast was issued.
Network	Deprecated term. For new applications, use the term "Water Data Service" instead. A Network is a single WaterOneFlow web service and its associated data store. A network identifier that indicates a specific network must be provided as part of the web service configuration. This is one of two identifiers that must be provided as part of a web service configuration; the other is Vocabulary. For more information see: Server, Network and Vocabulary Naming System.

Term

Definition

Issue Time

The date/time the forecast was issued.

Network

Deprecated term. For new applications, use the term "Water Data Service" instead. A Network is a single WaterOneFlow web service and its associated data store. A network identifier that indicates a specific network must be provided as part of the web service configuration. This is one of two identifiers that must be provided as part of a web service configuration; the other is Vocabulary. For more information see: Server, Network and Vocabulary Naming System.

1.5 - O thru P¶

Term	Definition
ODM	Observation Data Model - the data model that underlies all of HIS.
ODM Data Loader
ODM Database	A database that follows ODM.
ODM Streaming Data Loader
ODM Tools
ODM Utilities
ODM WaterOneFlow Webservices

1.6 - Q thru T¶

Term	Definition
Series Set	A set of geospatial or time series data grouped together for some purpose.
Series Set Catalog	A table that lists information about a thematic dataset for the purposes of (a) providing sufficient information that a Web Service can be issued to get the data, and (b) listing key summary information so that a user can assess what and how much data is contained in each theme.
Thematic Dataset	Depreciated Term. See Series Set. A set of geospatial or time series data grouped together for some purpose.
Thematic Dataset Catalog	Depreciated Term. See Series Set Catalog. A table that lists information about a thematic dataset for the purposes of (a) providing sufficient information that a Web Service can be issued to get the data, and (b) listing key summary information so that a user can assess what and how much data is contained in each theme.
Theme	Depreciated Term. The data that comprise a single geospatial layer or time series. For example a geospatial layer may comprise elevation values from a DEM for a watershed, while a time series may comprise the streamflow measured hourly at the outlet. Themes are used in GIS. This definition extends the idea to time series.
Third-party Web Service	A web service that produces WaterML from a data source other than a standard ODM. One types of WaterOneFlow web service.
Time Series	A set of numerical values (each associated with a datetime) that describe a given variable at a given location over a given time period. A time series may be further characterized by method, source, quality control level and data type. This terminology arises from the WaterOneFlow web service. See also the definition of Data Series.

1.7 - U thru Z¶

Term	Definition
Vocabulary	A set of variable codes that are being managed by an organization. While this functionality has not yet been implemented, it is hoped that eventually this information can be used to automatically tag the variables. When configuring a WaterOneFlow web service, the default vocabulary identifier for that service must be selected. This is one of two identifiers that must be selected when installing a WaterOneFlow web service. The other one is: Network. For more information see: Server, Network and Vocabulary Naming System.
WaterOneFlow	A web service that produces WaterML. It includes the following methods: GetSiteInfo — Given a site number, this method returns the site's metadata as an XML text. GetSiteInfoObject — Given a site number, this method returns the site's metadata as an object. GetSites — Given an array of site numbers, this method returns the site metadata for each one as an object for WaterOneFlow 1.0, and as text for WaterOneFlow 1.1. GetSitesObject — Given an array of site numbers, this method returns the site metadata for each one as an object. Applies to WaterOneFlow 1.1. GetSitesXml — Given an array of site numbers, this method returns the site metadata for each one as XML text. Applies to WaterOneFlow 1.0 GetVariableInfo — Given a variable code, this method returns the variable's name as an object. GetVariableInfoObject — Given a variable code, this method returns the variable's siteName as an object. GetValues — Given a site number, a variable, a start date, and an end date, this method returns a time series as XML text. GetValuesObject — Given a site number, a variable, a start date, and an end date, this method returns a time series as an object.
Water Data Federation	See CUASHI Water Data Federation.
Water Data Service	Depreciated, use WaterOneFlow web service instead.
WaterML	Water Markup Language; An XML schema for transmitting water data. Produced by WaterOneFlow web services.

2 - Other HIS Related Terms¶

2.1 - Symbol and A thru F¶

Term	Definition
ACWI	Advisory Committee on Water Information - An advisory committee for USGS. Purpose is to improve water information for decision making about natural resources management and environmental protection. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Memorandum No. 92-01 designates the Department of the Interior, through the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), as the lead agency. This organization has several subgroups including the National Water Quality Monitoring Council which produces the Water Quality Data Element List. See http://acwi.gov/index.html for more information.
API	Application Program Interface
Aquaveo	A consulting/software development company that specializes in visualizing water. Aquaveo's software solutions provide tools to engineers for modeling groundwater and surface-water hydrology and hydraulics. See http://www.aquaveo.com/ for more info.
ArcHydro	A data model for water resources. An ArcHydro toolset is available for ArcGIS desktop applications.
ASTM	American Society for Testing and Materials
AWRIS	Australian Water Resources Information System
CAS Registry	The world's largest substance database with over 46 million substance and 60 million sequence records. The CAS Registry is produced by CAS (Chemical Abstracts Service), a division of the American Chemical Society. CAS Registry Numbers (often referred to as CAS RNs or CAS Numbers) are unique identifiers for chemical substances. See http://www.cas.org/expertise/cascontent/registry/index.html for more information.
CF Metadata	A standard vocabulary for the Climate and Forecast domain called Climate and Forecast (CF) Metadata. Includes a list of standard parameter names for the sub-areas of: Atmospheric Chemistry, Atmosphere Dynamics, Carbon Cycle, Cloud, Hydrology, Ocean Dynamics, Radiation, Sea Ice, and Surface. See http://cf-pcmdi.llnl.gov/documents/cf-standard-names for more information.
CSIRO	Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization
CSML	Climate Science Modelling Language - A standards-based data model and GML (Geography Markup Language) application schema for atmospheric and oceanographic data with associated software tools developed at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory. http://csml.badc.rl.ac.uk/
CSV	Comma Separated Values
CUAHSI	Consortium of Universities for the Advancement of Hydrologic Science - See http://www.cuahsi.org/
Curated Dataset	A curated dataset represents a snapshot in time of a particular body of data, which supports data archiving and reproducibility of analyses carried out on the data. For example, if the USGS changes a streamflow value after the dataset was curated by the user, then the user’s dataset will differ from the values obtained if the user were to make another request for the data via the current USGS website or web services.
CyberIntegrater	Software from NCSA. http://isda.ncsa.uiuc.edu/cyberintegrator/
CZO	Critical Zone Observatory
End Point	An association between a binding and a network address, specified by a URI, that may be used to communicate with an instance of a web service. An end point indicates a specific location for accessing a web service using a specific protocol and data format.
EPA	Environmental Protection Agency - See http://www.epa.gov/ for more information.
ESMF	Earth System Modeling Framework - Software for building and coupling weather, climate, and related models. Managed by UCAR.

2.2 - G¶

Term	Definition
GEO	The Group on Earth Observations (or GEO) is coordinating international efforts to build a Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS). Recognizing the need to link and expand Earth Observations systems, over 100 governments and leading international organizations have founded the Group on Earth Observations, or GEO, to coordinate the construction of a Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS) by the year 2015. GEO was established in February 2005 after the World Summit on Sustainable Development, the Group of Eight leading industrialized countries (G8) and three ministerial Earth Observation Summits each called for improving observation systems. See http://www.earthobservations.org for more information.
GeoSciML	Geological Sciences Markup Language
GEOSS	Global Earth Observation System of Systems - The Group on Earth Observations (or GEO) is coordinating international efforts to build a Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS). This emerging public infrastructure is interconnecting a diverse and growing array of instruments and systems for monitoring and forecasting changes in the global environment. This “system of systems” supports policymakers, resource managers, science researchers and many other experts and decision-makers. See http://www.earthobservations.org/geoss.shtml for more information.
GF	General Feature (Model)
GIS	Geographic Information System
GML	Geography Markup Language
GRDC	The Global Runoff Data Centre (GRDC) is a world-wide repository of river discharge data and associated metadata. It is an International data centre operating under the auspices of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). Established in 1988 to support the research on global and climate change, and integrated water resources management, the GRDC has been serving for twenty years successfully as a facilitator between the producers of hydrologic data and the international research community. GRDC is a key partner in a number of data collection and data management projects on a global scale. The GRDC is funded by the Federal Government of Germany and is located within the Federal Institute of Hydrology (BfG). See http://grdc.bafg.de for more information.
GWML	Groundwater Markup Language

2.3 - H¶

Term	Definition
HDWG	Hydrology Domain Working Group, a forum for collaboration and development of standatds for hydrological data formed by OGC and WMO.
HIS	Hydrologic Information System
HRiB	HarmoniRIB, a database system for storing hydrologic data developed by the EU.

2.4 - I thru N¶

Term	Definition
IOOS	Integrated Ocean Observing System - A federal, regional, and private-sector partnership working to enhance our ability to collect, deliver, and use ocean information. IOOS delivers the data and information needed to increase understanding of our oceans and coasts, so decision makers can take action to improve safety, enhance the economy, and protect the environment. http://ioos.gov/
INSPIRE	Infrastructure for Spatial Information in the Eropean Community
ISO	International Standards Organization, an international standard setting organization that produces many standards relavant to hydrogology and data storage
ISO/TC 211	ISO/TC 211 standards catalogue
ITIS	Integrated Taxonomic Information System - An interagency effort to create a database with reliable information on species names and their hierarchical classification. The ITIS includes documented taxonomic information of flora and fauna from both aquatic and terrestrial habitats. See http://www.itis.gov/ for more information.
Jira	A brand of bug tracking software. Used by HIS as its primary bug tracking system.
Kepler	The Kepler Project is dedicated to furthering and supporting the capabilities, use, and awareness of the free and open source, scientific workflow application, Kepler. Kepler is designed to help scientists, analysts, and computer programmers create, execute, and share models and analyses across a broad range of scientific and engineering disciplines. Kepler can operate on data stored in a variety of formats, locally and over the internet, and is an effective environment for integrating disparate software components, such as merging "R" scripts with compiled "C" code, or facilitating remote, distributed execution of models. Using Kepler's graphical user interface, users simply select and then connect pertinent analytical components and data sources to create a "scientific workflow"—an executable representation of the steps required to generate results. The Kepler software helps users share and reuse data, workflows, and components developed by the scientific community to address common needs. Kepler is a Java-based system. See http://kepler-project.org/ for more information.
MDA	Model Driven Architecture - a software design approach for the development of software systems. It provides a set of guidelines for the structuring of specifications, which are expressed as models. Model-driven architecture is a kind of domain engineering, and supports model-driven engineering of software systems. It was launched by the Object Management Group (OMG) in 2001.
MSEF	Microsoft Entity Framework - a conceptual model used to define element structure, relationships and contraints. An instance of this conceptual moel can be built using a tool called the Entity Data Model, which is similar to UML. Mappings can be created to underlying storage mechanisms (databases, schema, etcl), allowing automatic generation from the conceptual model to a particular staorage type.
netCDF	network Common Data Form
NWQMC	National Water Quality Monitoring Council - A subgroup of the Advisory Committee on Water Information. One of their projects is a standard list of Water Quality Data Elements. See http://acwi.gov/methods/data_projects/index.html for more infomration.

2.5 - O thru P¶

Term	Definition
O&M	The OpenGIS® Observations and Measurements Encoding Standard (O&M) defines an abstract model and an XML schema encoding for observations and it provides support for common sampling strategies. O&M also provides a general framework for systems that deal in technical measurements in science and engineering. This is one of the OGC Sensor Web Enablement (SWE) suite of standards. See http://www.opengeospatial.org/standards/om for more information.
OGC	The Open Geospatial Consortium, Inc.® (OGC) is a non-profit, international, voluntary consensus standards organization that is leading the development of standards for geospatial and location based services. See http://www.opengeospatial.org/ for more information.
OMG	Object Management Group - OMG™ is an international, open membership, not-for-profit computer industry consortium. OMG Task Forces develop enterprise integration standards for a wide range of technologies, and an even wider range of industries. OMG’s modeling standards enable powerful visual design, execution and maintenance of software and other processes. OMG’s middleware standards and profiles are based on the Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA®) and support a wide variety of industries. http://www.omg.org
Ontology
OpenGIS	Abstract Specification
OpenMI	Protocol for communicating between models.
OpenMI Element Viewer

2.6 - Q thru T¶

Term	Definition
SDI	Spatial Data Infrastructure
SensorML	Sensor Model Language
SI	Systeme International (International System of Units)
SOS	Sensor Observation Service – an OGC standard. The OpenGIS® Sensor Observation Service Interface Standard (SOS) provides an API for managing deployed sensors and retrieving sensor data and specifically “observation” data. Whether from in-situ sensors (e.g., water monitoring) or dynamic sensors (e.g., satellite imaging), measurements made from sensor systems contribute most of the geospatial data by volume used in geospatial systems today. This is one of the OGC Sensor Web Enablement (SWE) suite of standards. See http://www.opengeospatial.org/standards/sos for more information.
SRS	Substance Registry Services (SRS) is the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) central system for information about substances that are tracked or regulated by EPA or other sources. It is the authoritative resource for basic information about chemicals, biological organisms, and other substances of interest to EPA and its state and tribal partners. See http://iaspub.epa.gov/sor_internet/registry/substreg/home/overview/home.do for more information.
Star Tree Viewer	The tree viewer that HIS uses to display the ontology.
STORET	The STOrage and RETrevial Database of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
SWE	The OGC's Sensor Web Enablement (SWE) standards enable developers to make all types of sensors, transducers and sensor data repositories discoverable, accessible and useable via the Web. See http://www.opengeospatial.org/ogc/markets-technologies/swe for more information.
Theme	Depreciated Term. The data that comprise a single geospatial layer or time series. For example a geospatial layer may comprise elevation values from a DEM for a watershed, while a time series may comprise the streamflow measured hourly at the outlet. Themes are used in GIS. This definition extends the idea to time series.

2.7 - U thru Z¶

Term	Definition
UK-EA-TS	The UK Environmental Agency developed he EA Time Series Data Exchange format (UK-EA-TS) to exchangea variety of sets of time-series data, primarily hydrologic data.
UML	Unified Modeling Language
URI	Uniform Resource Identifier - A string of characters used to identify or name a resource on the Internet.
URN	Uniform Resource Name
USGS	United States Geological Survey.
UTC	Coordinated Universal Time
W3C	World Wide Web Consortium
WATERS Network	A joint initiative among the environmental engineering and science, hydrologic and related Earth science, and social science research communities and funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), aims to provide opportunities to advance our scientific understanding of water as an integrated resource and develop the national capability needed to predict water quality and quantity everywhere at all times. For more info see: http://www.watersnet.org/
WATERS Test Bed Sites	As part of the WATERS Network planning process, NSF has funded 11 WATERS Test Bed projects to test various aspects of observatory design and operation. These two-year projects will be developing technologies ranging from collection of data from floating sensors to determining optimal placement of real-time nitrate sensors. Test Bed sites are located in a range of environmental conditions from the high Sierra Nevada to urban Baltimore. The sites will act as beta test locations for the deployment of CUAHSI HIS project server capability that will enable the Test Beds to archive and publish their own data in a standardized relational database schema known as the Observations Data Model (ODM). For more information see: http://www.watersnet.org/wtbs/
Water Quality Data Elements List	A standard list of water quality parameters developed by the National Water Quality Monitoring Council which is part of an advisory group to the USGS. There is both a list and a user's manual for the list. See http://acwi.gov/methods/data_projects/index.html for more infomration.
WCS	Web Coverage Services – An OGC standard for serving geospatial "coverages". The term "grid coverages" typically refers to content such as satellite images, digital aerial photos, digital elevation data, and other phenomena represented by values at each measurement point. THREDDS services are web coverage services.
WDTF	Water Data Transmission Format – XML schema for water data transmission developed by the Austrailian government's Bureau of Meteorology.
Web Coverage Service	An OGC standard for serving geospatial "coverages". The term "grid coverages" typically refers to content such as satellite images, digital aerial photos, digital elevation data, and other phenomena represented by values at each measurement point.
Web Feature Service	An OGC standard for serving geographical features over the internet.
Web Map Service	An OGC standard for serving georeferenced map images over the internet.
Web Service	A Web service is a software system designed to support interoperable machine-to-machine interaction over a network. It has an interface described in a machine-processable format (specifically WSDL). Other systems interact with the Web service in a manner prescribed by its description using SOAP-messages, typically conveyed using HTTP with an XML serialization in conjunction with other Web-related standards.
WFS	Web Feature Services - An OGC standard for serving geographical features over the internet.
WISE	Water Information System for Europe
WMO	The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations. It is the UN system's authoritative voice on the state and behaviour of the Earth's atmosphere, its interaction with the oceans, the climate it produces and the resulting distribution of water resources. See http://www.wmo.int for more information.
WMS	Web Map Services - An OGC standard for serving georeferenced map images over the internet.
WQX	Water Quality Exchange - A data exchange schema for partners to share ambient water quality data with the U.S. EPA for inclusion in it's STORET database.
WSDL	Web Service Definition Language
XHydro	An XML standard for transmission of water level data through web services for the German Federal Waterways and Shipping Administration. It goes slightly further in the it specifies an XML schema for the encoding of eneric times series, with an extension that is tailored specifically for water level and discharge data. It also contains a generic conceptual model from which other schemas can be created to address particular needs.
XMI	XML Metadata Interchange
XML	eXtensible Markup Language