About WaDE

Visit WaDE webpage at https://westernstateswater.org/wade

The WaDE Program is committed to assisting WSWC member states in publicly sharing water rights, allocation, supply, and use data through a common streamlined and standardized service that enables regional analyses to inform water resources planning and policies.

What Water Data Does WaDE Provide Access to?

1. Water Rights Allocation and Site Data In the western U.S., water rights (a.k.a., water allocation) are based on the prior appropriation doctrine "First in time, first in the right." Each water right has an allocated amount (based on a volumetric quantity or a flow rate) with a designated beneficial use (e.g., agriculture) and sometimes multiple uses, which may come from one or many specified water sources. Water right data within WaDE is applied to two distinct site applications: Point of Diversion & Places of Use. Where the point of diversion is the location where water is removed/withdrawn from a natural system (i.e., river, canal, groundwater, etc.), and the place of use is the location where said water is used (i.e., farmstead, municipal city boundary, residential use, etc.). Water rights data is accessible through the Western States Water Data Access and Analysis Tool (WestDAAT):https://westdaat.westernstateswater.org/

2. Regulatory Overlays Area Data There are regulations, compacts, particular management areas, etc., that provide a regulatory framework for water supply and water use across each state in the West. Examples of regulatory overlay involve regulatory/institutional constraints related to statutes, special management areas, regulatory oversight, compacts, or laws that are involved in the regulation of water supply or water use in a given reporting boundary area in any member state.

3. Site-Specific Data

3.1 Reservoirs and Observation Site Time Series Water Data Reservoir and Observation Site data refer to the historic water flows or volumes by gage stations that States operate year-round or seasonally. This data is separate from streamflow information gathered through federal agencies such as USGS or the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. Knowing river and reservoir status can help with long-term planning and flood forecasting modeling. Two relative measurements often used are discharge and gage height. Discharge is the rate at which a volume of water passes by a particular location. Gage height is a measurement of the distance between the water's surface above the stream gage's datum reference point (i.e., a unique reference point used to accommodate for changes in a stream channel over time). Reservoirs and Observation Site Water Recordings demo: https://waterdataexchangewswc.shinyapps.io/SiteSpecificReservoirAndObservationSiteDemo/

3.2. Site-Specific Public Supply Time Series Data Public Supply Water Use refers to the reported deliveries to urban water service areas, known as the place of use (i.e., farmstead, municipal city boundary, residential use, etc.), along with the water source intake locations, known as point of diversion (i.e., river, canal, groundwater, etc.). Put another way, water is withdrawn from site-specific locations and then applied (i.e., depleted) at a different location. Site-Specific Public Supply Water use demo: https://waterdataexchangewswc.shinyapps.io/SiteSpecificPublicSupplyWaterDemo/

4. Aggregated Area Budget Time Series Water Use Data Aggregated Water Budget Data is modeled and observed data that summarize inflows and outflows into the following five distinct components (i.e., categories) within a geospatial boundary (i.e., area) such as county or watershed: available supply, demand, withdrawal, delivered water, and consumptive use. Consumptive use is an irrecoverable loss from water diverted or withdrawn and not returned to the hydrologic system. Consumptive use is often associated with irrigated agriculture, where water is lost via plant growth through evapotranspiration. Consumptive use for agriculture is often modeled using remote sensing and remains unavailable across most States. States may have consumptive use data that is not publicly available either due to incompleteness, inaccuracy concerns, or sensitivity related to interstate compact administration. Aggregated Area Water Budget time series demo: https://waterdataexchangewswc.shinyapps.io/AggregatedBudgetWaterUseDemo/