Databases

This page contains links to online databases that may be related to water and agriculture. These databases contain such information as bibliographic citations, current research, streamflow data, species information, and chemical and toxicology data. For information on water-related bibliographic databases available to USDA employees, see WAIC's Water and Agriculture Information on DigiTop page.

Publications
Information Systems
Data
Geospatial/Mapping
Legal & Other

AGRICOLA
USDA. National Agricultural Library.
Bibliographic database of citations to the agricultural literature created by the National Agricultural Library and its cooperators. Production of these records in electronic form began in 1970, but the database covers materials in all formats, including printed works from the 15th century. The records describe publications and resources encompassing all aspects of agriculture and allied disciplines, including animal and veterinary sciences, entomology, plant sciences, forestry, aquaculture and fisheries, farming and farming systems, agricultural economics, extension and education, food and human nutrition, and earth and environmental sciences.

APIRS Online: The Aquatic, Wetland, and Invasive Plants Database
University of Florida. Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences.
"A free online resource devoted to freshwater aquatic and wetland plants, as well as terrestrial and aquatic invasive plants. The database includes annotated citations for more than 65,000 research articles, books and reports about plant ecology, physiology, utilization and control. Items in many languages dating back to the 18th century are in this inclusive database."

Distributed Structure-Searchable Toxicity (DSSTox) Database Network
"DSSTox provides a public forum for publishing downloadable, structure-searchable, standardized chemical structure files associated with chemical inventories or toxicity data sets of environmental relevance..." The network is "helping to build a public data foundation for improved structure-activity and predictive toxicology capabilities."

Green Infrastructure Effectiveness Database
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Office of Coastal Management.
"Search this online database of literature sources containing information on the effectiveness of green infrastructure to reduce the impacts of coastal hazards, such as inundation and erosion from tropical storms and cyclones, more frequent precipitation events, and sea level rise. The database contains records from a wide range of sources, such as peer-reviewed journals, online tools, and gray literature, and includes information on 32 different coastal green infrastructure types."

Health & Environmental Research Online (HERO)
Environmental Protection Agency.
"The Health and Environmental Research Online (HERO) database provides an easy way to access and influence the scientific literature behind EPA science assessments. The database includes more than 600,000 scientific references and data from the peer-reviewed literature..."

Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) Database for Risk Assessment
Environmental Protection Agency.
"EPA’s mission is to protect human health and the environment. "EPA’s IRIS Program supports this mission by identifying and characterizing the health hazards of chemicals found in the environment. Each IRIS assessment can cover a chemical, a group of related chemicals, or a complex mixture."

Manage Nutrient Loss Database - Nutrient Loss Database for Agricultural Fields and Forests in the US
USDA. ARS. Grassland Soil and Water Research Laboratory.
"The primary objective of this effort was to compile measured annual nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) load and concentration data representing field-scale transport from agricultural and forest land uses. The resulting publicly available data base provides: 1) measured nutrient load and concentration data in runoff and drainage and corresponding watershed characteristics from numerous field-scale studies, 2) readily accessible, easily queried information to support water quality management, modeling, and future research design,and 3) a platform allowing user input of additional project-specific data."

National Environmental Publications Information System
Environmental Protection Agency.
Allows you to "search over 11,000 full text, EPA documents online."

National Wetlands Research Center Publications and Information Products
DOI. United States Geological Survey.
Database of studies and reports from this organization within the USGS.

Publications Warehouse
DOI. United States Geological Survey.
"The reports and thematic maps database currently contains more than 67,000 bibliographic citations [as of Jan 13, 2005], including numbered series begun as early as 1882. Citations and online documents are added regularly. Availability of content ranges from full text to bibliographic citation only."

Scientific Manuscript Database
USDA. Agricultural Research Service.
"ARS's Scientific Manuscript database, formally known as "TEKTRAN", captures the latest "ARS published research results. As soon as a manuscript is accepted for publication it is put into our database and made available to cooperators and the public. Our scientific database is updated daily."

Science Inventory
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
"The Science Inventory is a searchable database of research products primarily from EPA's Office of Research and Development. Science Inventory records provide descriptions of the product, contact information, and links to available printed material or websites." [Note: the database covers environmental topic beyond water.]

Technical Paper Library
Irrigation Association.
Access to more than 800 papers presented at the Irrigation Show and Education Conference technical programs for the past 15 years.

Western Waters Digital Library
Western Waters Digital Library.
"The Western Waters Digital Library (WWDL) provides free public access to a wide range of significant resources on water in the Western United States. Available resources include classic water literature, legal transcripts, maps, reports, personal papers, water project records, photographs, audio recordings, videos, and other material."

AQUASTAT
UN. Food and Agriculture Organization.
"AQUASTAT is FAO's global water information system, developed by the Land and Water Division. It is the most quoted source on global water statistics...[they] collect, analyze and disseminate data and information by country on water resources, water uses, agricultural water management... And much more!"

Federal Support Toolbox - Databases, models and programs
U. S. Army Corps of Engineers and others.
"The Federal Support Toolbox is a comprehensive "one-stop-shop" online water resources data portal with direct links to valuable data, state of the art models and tools for utilization in information sharing and collaboration for the water resources community in the U.S. and internationally."

FishBase
FishBase.org
"FishBase is a global biodiversity information system on finfishes. Its initial goal to provide key facts on population dynamics for 200 major commercial species has now grown to having a wide range of information on all species currently known in the world: taxonomy, biology, trophic ecology, life history, and uses, as well as historical data reaching back to 250 years."

Freshwater Biological Traits Database (Traits)
Environmental Protection Agency
"The Freshwater Biological Traits Database currently contains traits data for 3,857 North American macroinvertebrate taxa, and includes habitat, life history, mobility, morphology and ecological trait data. These data were compiled for a project on climate change effects on river and stream ecosystems. The traits data were gathered from multiple sources, which are listed on the web site under, "Data Source". Data gathering efforts focused on data that were published or otherwise well-documented by trustworthy sources, accessible, appropriate for the regions being studied, in a standardized format that could be analyzed or easily converted to a format that could be analyzed, and ecologically relevant to the gradients being considered."

Human Health Benchmarks for Pesticides
Environmental Protection Agency.
"Advanced testing methods now allow pesticides to be detected in water at very low levels. These small amounts of pesticides detected in drinking water or source water for drinking water do not necessarily indicate a health risk. The EPA has developed human health benchmarks for approximately 350 pesticides to enable our partners to better determine whether the detection of a pesticide in drinking water or source waters for drinking water may indicate a potential health risk."

International Stormwater Best Management Practices (BMP) Database
Various organizations.
"The International Stormwater Best Management Practices (BMP) Database project website features a database of over 600 BMP studies, performance analysis results, tools for use in BMP performance studies, monitoring guidance and other study-related publications."

WATERS GeoViewer
EPA. Office of Water.
"The WATERS GeoViewer tool is an EPA GeoPlatform based web mapping application that provides access to spatial data sets stored in WATERS, such as NHDPlus, EPA and Non-EPA Linked Data; watershed level reports containing both NHDPlus and StreamCat information; linked Data information, along with hyperlinks to web reports containing additional attribute information; interactive Upstream / Downstream Search capabilities supporting Linked Data discovery; interactive Watershed Delineation; and underlying EPA GeoPlatform items that can be used to create other mapping applications." Access WATERS GeoViewer Tutorial.

National Environmental Methods Index
Environmental Protection Agency; DOI. United States Geological Survey; National Water Quality Monitoring Council.
"First launched in 2002, the National Environment Methods Index (NEMI) is a searchable database of environmental methods, protocols, statistical and analytical methods, and procedures that allows scientists and managers to find and compare methods for all stages of the monitoring process. Since its release, NEMI has been updated several times, each time to take advantage of better technology, accommodate new method types, or both."

NEclimateUS.org
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, North Atlantic Landscape Conservation Cooperative, National Wildlife Federation and Environment Canada.
"NEclimateUS.org (a.k.a. 'NExUS') is a searchable online database that provides a gateway to climate information for the Eastern US, Atlantic Canada and the maritime region known as the Northwest Atlantic. NExUS summarizes available data, tools, plans and reports; climate-related organizations; ongoing projects; and needs for climate information identified largely in publications. This search tool for regional climate information seeks to foster collaborative opportunities for climate-related work in the Eastern US and Atlantic Canada."

PAN Pesticide Database
Pesticide Action Network.
"Brings together a diverse array of information on pesticides from many different sources, providing human toxicity (chronic and acute), ecotoxicity and regulatory information for about 6,400 pesticide active ingredients and their transformation products, as well as adjuvants and solvents used in pesticide products."

Ag Data Commons - Agroecosystems & Environment
USDA. National Agricultural Library
"Ag Data Commons (ADC) provides access to a wide variety of open data relevant to agricultural research. We are a centralized repository for data already on the web, as well as for new data being published for the first time. While compliance with the U.S. Federal public access and open data directives is important, we aim to surpass them. Our goal is that ADC will foster innovative data re-use, integration, and visualization to support bigger, better science and policy."

Agricultural Research Service Water Database
USDA. Agricultural Research Service.
Collection of precipitation and streamflow data from small agricultural watersheds in the United States.

Beach Advisory and Closing On-line Notification (BEACON)
Environmental Protection Agency
"BEACON is EPA's application to make state beach advisory and closing data available to the public. EPA created BEACON to meet the Agency's Beaches Environmental Assessment and Coastal Health (BEACH) Act requirements. The BEACH Act (section 406(e)) requires EPA to make a national coastal recreation water pollution occurrence database, which contains state reported beach monitoring and notification data available to the public by electronic means."

BioData - Aquatic Bioassessment Data for the Nation
DOI. United States Geological Survey.
"Retrieval system which provides access to aquatic bioassessment data (biological community and physical habitat data) collected by USGS scientists from stream ecosystems across the nation."

Decadal Change in Groundwater Quality
U. S. Geological Survey
"About 140 million people—almost one-half of the Nation’s population—rely on groundwater for drinking water, and the demand for groundwater for irrigation and agriculture continues to increase. This mapper shows how concentrations of pesticides, nutrients, metals, and organic contaminants in groundwater are changing during decadal periods across the Nation."

Geochemistry of Sediments in the U.S.
U. S. Geological Survey.
"Geochemical analyses of sediment samples throughout the U.S. collected by the hydrogeochemical and stream sediment reconnaissance (HSSR) phase of the National Uranium Resource Evaluation (NURE) program. This database contains 397,625 records."

Geochemistry of Water Samples in the U.S.
U. S. Geological Survey.
"Geochemical analyses of water samples throughout the U.S. collected by the hydrogeochemical and stream sediment reconnaissance (HSSR) phase of the National Uranium Resource Evaluation (NURE) program. This database contains 335,547 records."

Little River Watershed (Georgia) Precipitation and Streamflow Data
USDA. ARS. Southeast Watershed Research Laboratory.
Archived data sets from the Agricultural Research Service, Southeast Watershed Research Laboratory in Tifton, Georgia.

Long-Term Agroecosystem Research Data Overview
USDA, Agricultural Research Service
"The USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS) Long-Term Agroecosystm Research network consists of 18 Federal and university agricultural research sites with an average of over 50 years of history. The goal of this research network is to ensure sustained crop and livestock production and ecosystem services from agroecosystems, and to forecast and verify the effects of environmental trends, public policies, and emerging technologies."

National Contaminant Occurrence Database
EPA. Office of Water.
"EPA developed the NCOD to satisfy the statutory requirements set by Congress in the 1996 amendments to the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) to maintain a national drinking water contaminant occurrence database using samples data for both regulated and unregulated contaminants in public water systems. This site provides a listing of water sample analytical data that EPA is currently using and has used in the past for analysis, rulemaking, and rule evaluation. The data have been extensively checked for data quality and analyzed for national representative-ness."

Nitrogen and Phosphorus Pollution Data Access Tool
Environmental Protection Agency.
"EPA has developed this data access tool, providing downloadable data layers and key information on the following: the extent and magnitude of nitrogen and phosphorus pollution in our Nation's waters; water quality problems or potential problems related to this pollution; and potential sources of these pollutants."

Nutrient Indicators Dataset
Environmental Protection Agency.
"This Dataset consists of a set of indicators and associated state-level data to serve as a regional compendium of information pertaining to potential or documented nitrogen and phosphorus pollution, impacts of that pollution, and states’ efforts to minimize loadings and adopt numeric criteria for nutrients into state water quality standards. Information on the data source(s) used, the data collection process, and any caveats or assumptions made which should be considered when using the data, are included on each indicator’s individual web page."

Soil Climate Analysis Network (SCAN)
USDA. NRCS. National Water and Climate Center
"The Soil Climate Analysis Network (SCAN) is a comprehensive, nationwide soil moisture and climate information system designed to provide data to support natural resource assessments and conservation activities. Administered by the United States Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) through the National Water and Climate Center (NWCC), in cooperation with the NRCS National Soil Survey Center, the system focuses on agricultural areas of the U.S. monitoring soil temperature and soil moisture content at several depths, soil water level, air temperature, relative humidity, solar radiation, wind, precipitation, barometric pressure, and more."

STEWARDS: Sustaining the Earth's Watersheds, Agricultural Research Data System
USDA. Agricultural Research Service.
"A team within the Conservation Effects Assessment Project - Watershed Assessment Studies has developed a web-based data delivery system to provide access to soil, water, climate, land-management, and socioeconomic data from fourteen watersheds."

Stream-Catchment (StreamCat) Dataset
U. S. Environmental Protection Agency
"EPA's Office of Research and Development (ORD) has developed the Stream-Catchment (StreamCat) dataset, an extensive collection of landscape metrics for 2.6 million streams and associated catchments within the conterminous U.S. StreamCat includes both natural and human-related landscape features. The data are summarized both for individual stream catchments and for cumulative upstream watersheds, based on the National Hydrography Dataset Plus Version 2 geospatial framework."

Tributary Data Download (Ohio)
Heidelberg College. Water Quality Laboratory.
"In 1974, the Water Quality Laboratory initiated a program of detailed sample collection and analyses for a set of Lake Erie tributaries as part of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Lake Erie Wastewater Management Study. The objective of the study was to determine the total quantities (loads) of nutrients and suspended sediments moving from watersheds through major tributaries and into Lake Erie. That program has expanded to become the major research and monitoring focus of what is now the National Center for Water Quality Research (NCWQR) at Heidelberg University. It represents the most detailed and long-term program of its type in the United States and serves multiple roles in nonpoint pollution research, education, modeling, and adaptive management."

USGS Ground-Water Data for the Nation
DOI. United States Geological Survey.
Provided by the National Water Information System (NWIS), this database consists of "more than 850,000 records of wells, springs, test holes, tunnels, drains, and excavations in the United States" --including latitude/longitude, well depth data, and aquifer descriptions. Surface water and water quality data are also available.

USGS Water Data for the Nation
U.S. Geological Survey
"These pages provide access to water-resources data collected at approximately 1.9 million sites in all 50 States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. Online access to this data is organized around the categories listed to the left. The USGS investigates the occurrence, quantity, quality, distribution, and movement of surface and underground waters and disseminates the data to the public, State and local governments, public and private utilities, and other Federal agencies involved with managing our water resources."

Water Quality Data
U.S. Geological Survey. Environmental Protection Agency. National Water Quality Monitoring Council.
“Water quality monitoring is a crucial aspect to protecting water resources. Under the Clean Water Act, state, tribal and federal agencies monitor lakes, streams, rivers and other types of water bodies to determine water quality condition. The data generated from these monitoring activities help water resource managers know where pollution problems exist, where to focus pollution control energies and where progress has been made. The Water Quality Exchange (WQX) is the mechanism for data partners to submit water monitoring data to EPA. The Water Quality Portal (WQP) is the mechanism for anyone, including the public, to retrieve water monitoring data from EPA. The Water Quality Portal is the nation's largest source for water quality monitoring data. The Water Quality Portal (WQP) uses the Water Quality Exchange (WQX) data format to share over 340 million water quality data records data from 400 federal, state, tribal and other partners.”

Enforcement and Compliance History Online (ECHO)
Environmental Protection Agency
"Use EPA's ECHO website to search for facilities in your community to assess their compliance with environmental regulations. You can also investigate pollution sources, examine and create enforcement-related maps, or explore your state's performance."

National Hydrography Dataset
DOI. United States Geological Survey.
"The National Hydrography Dataset (NHD), a component of The National Map, represents the water drainage network of the United States with features such as rivers, streams, canals, lakes, ponds, coastline, dams, and streamgages. The NHD is the surface water component on the US Topo map product produced by the USGS. These data, in digital vector geographic information system (GIS) format, are designed to be used in general mapping and in the analysis of surface water systems."

National Wetlands Inventory
DOI. Fish and Wildlife Service.
"The US FWS National Wetlands Inventory (NWI) is a publically available resource that provides detailed information on the abundance, characteristics, and distribution of US wetlands." "The Wetlands Mapper delivers an easy-to-use map-like view of America’s wetland resources. It spatially integrates NWI data with additional natural resource information and political boundaries to produce a robust decision support tool."

Surf Your Watershed
EPA. Office of Water.
This is a tool from that helps you locate a watershed of interest and provides information about it.

U.S. Water Use from 1950-Present
DOI. United States Geological Survey.
Data visualization of United States freshwater withdrawals (1950-present) by total and by categories (thermoelectric, public supply, irrigation, and industrial). State specific information provided as well. Also provides access to the most recent report, Estimated use of water in the United States in 2010 and information from earlier years.

WATERS Geospatial Data Downloads
Environmental Protection Agency.
"Geospatial data for EPA's Office of Water Programs, including 303(d) Impaired Waters, 305(b) Waters As Assessed and Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs) are available as prepackaged national downloads or as more current GIS web and and data services. EPA provides WATERS geospatial data in a variety of formats including Geographical Information Systems (GIS) compatible shapefiles and geodatabases, as well as ESRI and OGC web mapping services."

Web Soil Survey
USDA. Natural Resources Conservation Service.
"Web Soil Survey (WSS) provides soil data and information produced by the National Cooperative Soil Survey. It is operated by the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and provides access to the largest natural resource information system in the world. NRCS has soil maps and data available online for more than 95 percent of the nation’s counties and anticipates having 100 percent in the near future. The site is updated and maintained online as the single authoritative source of soil survey information."

Current Research Information System
USDA. National Institute of Food and Agriculture.
Documentation and reporting system for publicly supported agricultural, food and nutrition, and forestry research in the United States.

Drinking Water Tools
EPA. Office of Water.
"The Drinking Water tools assist with analyzing drinking water data."

Grants Reporting and Tracking System
EPA.
"The Grants Reporting and Tracking System (GRTS) is the primary tool for management and oversight of the EPA’s Nonpoint Source (NPS) Pollution Control Program. GRTS pulls grant information from EPA’s centralized grants and financial databases and allows grant recipients to enter detailed information on the individual projects or activities funded under each grant."

Long-Term Agroecosystem Research Data Overview
USDA. Agricultural Research Service.
"The USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS) Long-Term Agroecosystm Research network consists of 18 Federal and university agricultural research sites with an average of over 50 years of history. The goal of this research network is to ensure sustained crop and livestock production and ecosystem services from agroecosystems, and to forecast and verify the effects of environmental trends, public policies, and emerging technologies."

MyWATERS Mapper
EPA. Office of Water.
"MyWATERS Mapper dynamically displays snapshots of EPA Office of Water program data. This version of MyWATERS Mapper depicts the status of NPDES permits for each State; summary information from the Clean Watershed Needs Survey; and water quality assessments. Future versions will include other Office of Water Program Snapshots. MyWATERS Mapper also contains water-related geographic themes such as 12-digit watersheds, the national stream network known as the National Hydrography Dataset, and other water-related map layers. MyWATERS Mapper enables you to create customized maps at national and local scales."

National Environmental Methods Index
Environmental Protection Agency; DOI; United States Geological Survey; National Water Quality Monitoring Council.
"First launched in 2002, the National Environment Methods Index (NEMI) is a searchable database of environmental methods, protocols, statistical and analytical methods, and procedures that allows scientists and managers to find and compare methods for all stages of the monitoring process. Since its release, NEMI has been updated several times, each time to take advantage of better technology, accommodate new method types, or both."

National Estuaries Restoration ACT
DOC. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
"The National Estuaries Restoration Inventory (NERI) houses information on estuary habitat restoration projects so that we can track our progress towards meeting the goals of the Estuary Restoration Act."

Pesticide Properties Database
USDA. Agricultural Research Service.
"The ARS PPD is a compendium of chemical and physical properties of 334 widely used pesticides. Information included in the database focuses on 16 of the most important properties that affect pesticide transport and degradation characteristics." NOTE: No longer being updated.

Safe Drinking Water Information System (SDWIS)
Environmental Protection Agency.
Provides access to information about Safe Drinking Water Act violations and enforcement history for public water supplies since 1993; see also Safe Drinking Water Overview for more information.

State Water Agency Practices for Climate Adaptation Database
Environmental Protection Agency.
This database is a "compilation of practices [that] highlight some of the innovative actions or planning efforts by various state water management agencies that help address a changing climate."

StreamStats
DOI. United States Geological Survey.
"A Web-based tool that allows users to obtain streamflow statistics, drainage-basin characteristics, and other information for user-selected sites on streams. StreamStats users can choose locations of interest from an interactive map and obtain information for these locations."

Surf Your Watershed
EPA. Office of Water.
This is a tool from that helps you locate a watershed of interest and provides information about it.