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Annual Water Data Report Mapper—Water Years 2006 to 2012

How To Use the Mapper

This interface provides a map view of sites with USGS annual water data. Google Maps are used to provide speed and versatility in a format that is familiar to many users. The interface can be used most efficiently by following a few basic rules:

Center and zoom to area of interest.
Select site types using checkboxes.
Select Water Year using the drop-down list.
Sites are clickable only when zoomed in close enough for accurate selection.
Specific areas such as US states and territories can be selected using the drop-down list.
Named places and addresses can be selected using Google geographic searching.

Water Year

A Water Year is the 12-month period October 1 through September 30. The water year is designated by the calendar year in which it ends and includes 9 of the 12 months. Thus, the year ending September 30, 2008, is called the "2008 Water Year".

The Mapper displays sites for only one water year at a time. The drop-down list shows the years available through the Mapper. Prior water-year data are available online from USGS Publications.

Selecting an Area or Place to View

The Mapper provides several alternatives to selecting an area to view. The Navigation Controls explained below can be used to select areas directly on the map.

One alternative is to select a particular U.S. State or other territory by name from a list on the top menu bar. This option is useful for quickly viewing a larger area. The map view will be centered on the area and include at least all area inside its official boundaries. Certain areas outside of US territory are also included in the list because some sites are operated as part of cooperative agreements.

Another alternative is to select an area using a place name or address. This option utilizes the proprietary Google geographic searching, and is useful for viewing close to a specific point of interest.

Displaying Sites

Explanation below is for zoom levels in which sites are not clickable.

Surface‑Water Sites
(streams, lakes, wetlands, estuaries, ocean, diversions, outfalls)

Any data (not clickable)

Groundwater Sites
(wells, any subsurface)

Any data (not clickable)

Atmospheric Sites
(climate, weather)

Any data (not clickable)

Explanation below is for zoom levels in which sites are clickable.

Surface‑Water Sites
(streams, lakes, wetlands, estuaries, ocean, diversions, outfalls)

Basic data only (flow, level)
sw with qw icon

Basic data + water quality
sw with clim icon

Basic data + climate
sw with eco icon

Basic data + ecology
sw collocated sites icon

Multiple surface-water sites

Groundwater Sites
(wells, any subsurface)

Basic data only (water level)
gw with qw icon

Basic data + water quality
gw collocated sites icon

Multiple groundwater sites

Atmospheric Sites
(climate, weather)

Basic data only (climate)
at with qw icon

Basic data + water quality
at collocated sites icon

Multiple atmospheric sites

The Mapper displays clickable sites only at smaller scales (10 miles or less) in the map view. This approach provides a reasonably fast drawing time. Site types can be turned on and off using the checkboxes.

The general scheme of the site symbols is that an open (unfilled) symbol indicates the collection of basic water-quantity data only; such as streamflow, water level, or precipitation. A closed (filled) symbol indicates the collection of additional types of data at a primary site type; such as water quality, climatology, or ecology. Shapes and colors are also used to indicate differences between sites. Surface-water sites use triangles, groundwater sites use circles, and climatological sites use squares. Basic site type colors are black, red, and blue, respectively, with a closed symbol in the basic color indicating the collection of water-quality data. Blue and green indicate the collection of climatolgy or ecology, respectively. In the rare case of conflicts in categorizing a site, the descending general hierarchy of presentation is basic quantity, water quality, climatology, and ecology.

At some locations there are multiple sites. These are indicated by a Multiple Sites mapping symbol.

The full explanation of symbols for a site type will only appear when that site type is turned on.

Selecting a Site and Getting Data

Controls in this section only apply at zoom levels of 9 or greater where sites are clickable.

Selecting (clicking) the site will identify it by site number and name. A link is also provided to open a view (PDF) of the annual Water Data Report for the year displayed. Multiple links are provided in cases where there are multiple sites at one location.

A List Sites button is provided in the left control panel. Selecting this control will produce a new window that lists all sites included in the map view. The list can be printed or saved to a file, and includes links to access the annual Water Data Report for the year displayed. The list also includes the creation date, time, bounding coordinates, and other information about the map view.

Background View

The default background view is a shaded relief terrain map. Several background map types can be selected:

Map - This shows a map with a traditional depiction of roads, parks, borders, bodies of water and more.
Satellite - This shows aerial imagery.
Hybrid - This shows a modified composite of the Map and Satellite views.
Terrain - This shows physical elevation as shaded relief and elevation lines. It also includes street names and other information.
USGS - This shows USGS topographic map.

Note that background views are appropriate to and will vary with map scale. Not all views are available at all scales, particularly when zoomed in very close to a location.

Navigating in Google Maps

You can navigate (move your view) in two dimensions in any Google Map. To pan (move the map), do one of the following:

Click and drag the map
Press the up arrow on your keyboard to move north
Press the down arrow on your keyboard to move south
Press the right arrow on your keyboard to move east
Press the left arrow on your keyboard to move west

Additionally, you can zoom in or out pressing the + or - keys. Move the cursor over a location and use the mouse scroll button to zoom in or out on that location. To center and zoom in on a location, double click the location.

Using the Navigation Controls

On-screen navigation controls are shown on the left. Navigation controls include:

Arrows - Click the appropriate arrow buttons to move the view north, south, east or west. Click to return to your original view.
Zoom - Click + to zoom in on the center of the map. Click - to zoom out.
Zoom slider - Drag the zoom slider up or down to zoom in or out incrementally.

Zoom box - Use a box to define the area for zooming in, as follows:

	Click to activate zoom-box function. The following control will appear.
	This control appears when the zoom-box function is active. Drag the box corners to desired zoom area. Note that the zoom-box height and width will be proportional to the map window. Clicking on this control will deactivate the zoom-box function.

Using the Overview Map

The overview map (shown left here) appears in the bottom right corner of the map. It helps orient you by showing the location of current map view in the context of a larger geographical area. The area currently displayed in the map is show as a purple box in the overview map. At any time, click to hide the overview map or click to display it again.

As you pan or zoom in the map, the overview map view changes accordingly. You can change the existing view in the map by doing one of the following:

Drag and drop the purple box in the overview map.
Drag and drop the area outside the purple box to pan the map.

Parameters in the Web Page Address (URL)

Certain parameters can be included in the web page address (URL) to create opening views that go directly to an area of interest. These include U.S. state or territory codes, center coordinates, and zoom level. To include a parameter in the URL, append the following to the URL after a "?" for the first parameter, and an "&" for additional parameters. For example, to create a view centered on the lower 48 states, the full URL would be:
http://wdr.water.usgs.gov/adrgmap/index.html?MapCenterX=-96.0&MapCenterY=36.0&MapZoom=4.

state=nn sets the view centered on a particular U.S. state or territory, where nn is any official postal code. The value is not case sensitive. There is no default, but if blank the default values of MapCenterX, MapCenterY, and MapZoom will be used. Any allowed value of state or territory code will override any other parameters.
MapCenterX=nn sets the horizontal center coordinate of the map view, where nn is any value of decimal longitude. Default is -96.0.
MapCenterY=nn sets the vertical center coordinate of the map view, where nn is any value of decimal latitude. Default is 36.0.
MapZoom=nn sets the scale ot the map view, where nn is any valid zoom level. Zoom level can vary from 1 to the maximum zoom that a particular map type can support (see Background View; for example, Terrain map maximum zoom level is 15). Default is 4.

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