OHD/HL/CHPS - HydroXC

HydroXC

The Hydrology XML Consortium (HydroXC) is an open, independent group of organizations working for the advancement of hydrologic forecasting through open communication and data sharing.

NEWS AND ACTIVITIES (in reverse chronological order)

April 2008

The HydroXC effort did not receive any FY08 funding; all work has now been placed on indefinite hold. Apex will continue to host the website at http://www.hydroxc.org/ until June 20, 2008 at which point the site will either be returned to NWS hosting or retired.

January 2008

In October Apex Digital Systems and Dr. Michael Piasecki from Drexel University submitted to OHD a proposal for the FY08 Hydrology budget that would build upon work completed in previous fiscal years, and help make the HydroXC work successful and self-sustaining. The Apex/Piasecki proposal suggests aligning the Hydro XML with the Consortium of Universities for the Advancement of Hydrologic Science (CUAHSI)'s WaterML schema (ref. http://his.cuahsi.org/wofws.html); this would provide sorely needed resources to the overall hydrologic XML effort. OHD expects to finalize the FY08 Hydrology budget during the next quarter.

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October 2007

A visit in September by the Australian Water Information Delegation to establish closer ties for information exchange revealed their interest in our work on Hydrology XML. Apex Digital Services and Dr. Michael Piasecki from Drexel University met with them about the XML schema and the Consortium. There may be opportunities for further collaboration in the future.

July 2007

Apex Digital Services completed development of a proof of concept tool that converts between SHEF .B format and HydroXC-compliant XML. Apex led a workshop for Consortium members in June to demonstrate the tool, using actual SHEF .B data. The goal is for Consortium members other than OHD to further this work, or begin using HydroXC-compliant XML on real (i.e., not proof of concept) projects. The new HydroXC web site has now been launched: http://www.hydroxc.org. The former OHD-hosted HydroXC web page (https://www.nws.noaa.gov/ohd/hydroxc/) is still available; however it will automatically forward you to the new site after 10 seconds.

April 2007

Under the leadership of Dr. Michael Piasecki from Drexel University the Hydrology XML Consortium (HydroXC) is now developing sample schema objects. Dr. Piasecki has proposed that the Hydro-XML schema employ the existing spatial referencing features and the defined HydroFeatures of the Geographic Markup Language (GML). Based on these early concepts, Apex Digital Services has begun development of a parser that will convert between SHEF .B format and HydroXC-compliant XML. Apex led a workshop for Consortium members at the end of March to present these ideas.

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April 2006

Phase 2 of the contract task to refine and extend The Hydrology XML Consortium (HydroXC) is right now being completed. Two workshops were held, one in February and one in March. The first workshop presented a real world example of using HydroXC-compliant XML to serve flood inundation data from the FLDWAV model to any application that might map those data. The second workshop consisted of presentations by NWRFC and NCRFC on their uses of XML and their needs as we move toward a third phase of this project. The third phase of work is being defined right now and will concentrate on crafting tools to manipulate HydroXC-compliant files, tools to convert into and out of HydroXC, and creation of commonly agreed upon object templates. The goal of Phase 3 will be to provide tools that can be used by Consortium members in their operational software as desired. A slightly revised Version 2 of the HydroXC-compliant XML schema definition will be published in early April as a result of the work performed in Phase 2.

January 2006

Phase 2 of the contract task to create and promote the Hydrology XML Consortium (HydroXC) was defined, proposed, accepted, and awarded during this period. A survey of the RFCs’ XML usage and thoughts for the future was completed. A report is pending. The contractor maintained contact with the HydroXC members, added members, and obtained more data examples to refine the schema to version 2. The contractor also modeled the output data of dynamic wave routing models (e.g., FLDWAV and DamBreak) to create HydroXC-compliant XML. The contractor reports a considerable increase in HydroXC member interest and enthusiasm this quarter as Phase 2 has commenced. They are preparing a presentation for HL Management to outline various HydroXC opportunities that are presenting themselves now.

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October 2005

Phase 2 of the contract task to create and promote the Hydrology XML Consortium (HydroXC) was defined, proposed, accepted, and awarded during this period. This second phase should commence around 1 October and continue for the next six to seven months. Phase 2 will continue to refine the schema using more member data examples and RFC data examples and will look at converting the output of dynamic wave routing models from proprietary format files to HydroXC-compliant XML.

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