Automated Quality Documentation for Hydrometric Data#
Camel Farrier A caretaker who trims, shoes, and maintains the hooves of camels.
Hydrometric data produced by the Water Survey of Canada (WSC) are critical inputs to many decisions in water resources practice and research. This supplementary material provides data summary pages with interactive visualizations of estimated streamflow timeseries with supporting information (rating curve calibration points), as well as a “changelog” of polygons representing the upstream contributing area of hydrometric monitoring stations. The goal is to organize information to help downstream users assess data quality and changes over time.
Reporting Backlog Example#
The map below shows the reporting backlog for daily streamflow data in HYDAT, defined as the time since the most recent flow record for each station. Hovering over points shows station metadata and backlog duration. Clicking on map points takes you to the station summary page.
import sys
from pathlib import Path
sys.path.insert(0, str(Path(__file__).resolve().parents[3]))
from bokeh.io import show
from scripts.generation.revision_plots import plot_network_backlog
show(plot_network_backlog())
Large-Sample Hydrology Impact#
WSC hydrometric data underpin large-sample hydrology (LSH) studies, which rely on catchment boundaries to derive physiographic attributes and climate forcings. This repository examines changes to the national monitoring network drainage basins polygons: how this information is transmitted and how it propagates downstream. There is a delay between when information is updated by the producer and when these changes are integrated into downstream applications. As a result, old polygons remain in current versions of LSH datasets like HYSETS and Caravan. The Camel Farrier framework summarizes these changes and their potential impacts.
See the Broken Telephone case study for a detailed analysis of how polygon versioning gaps propagate through derived datasets.
Opportunities for Improvement#
Catchment delineation is challenging when basin size decreases relative to DEM resolution, and in areas of low relief. These cases represent opportunities for collaborative improvement through:
High-resolution DEM delineation
Field validation
Cross-dataset and delineation methodology comparison
Community contributions based on local knowledge and experience
See Contributing for guidelines on proposing polygon improvements.
Contents#
Station catchment summary pages provide catchment polygons (GeoJSON), metadata, rating curves, field visit records, and revision history. The validation framework includes automated tests for data completeness, temporal continuity, and geometric validity. Version control workflows use Git-based tracking with semantic versioning and metadata schemas. Interactive visualizations show polygon evolution and data availability.
All data provided in open formats (GeoJSON, CSV, JSON).
Theme#
The theme of this book is adapted from the Tufte CSS.