Innovative groundwater management has long put Nebraska in the national spotlight. Now, with help from a multidisciplinary university team, the state \nis better managing all of its water resources. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In nature, surface water and groundwater are interconnected \u2013 siphoning one affects the other. States, however, have traditionally managed the two water sources independently. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
To integrate water management, the university helped the Nebraska Department of Natural Resources create INSIGHT, the Integrated Network of Scientific Information and GeoHydrologic Tools. This advanced web-based tool consolidates hydrologic data from across the state into an easily accessible format. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
INSIGHT provides a more detailed understanding \nof water conditions at state and local levels to water managers, municipalities, industry, farmers and \nother water users.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWith this kind of transparent data system, water managers can allocate water resources better to support the state\u2019s economy,\u201d said project co-leader Zhenghong Tang, professor of community and regional planning and Hyde Professor in the College of Architecture. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
As climate change increases the number and severity \nof droughts, better managing water resources becomes even more critical to sustaining limited resources and reducing water conflicts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Consolidating data from across government agencies and allowing diverse users to access and understand the data intuitively presented challenges. Tang brought geospatial and hydrologic experience to the problem. Co-leader Hongfeng Yu, associate professor of \ncomputer science and engineering, brought expertise\nin information technology. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Their solution was to create a scalable database system that uses an interactive map capable of zooming between state, basin and sub-basin levels. Data presented among the map changes automatically to coincide with the map view. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe tool\u2019s design makes it easier to update the site\nwith new data, saving the state time and money,\u201d\nYu said. Its advanced visualization techniques can\nbe upgraded as new technologies develop, keeping INSIGHT \u2013 and Nebraska \u2013 on the cutting edge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s an excellent example of an interdisciplinary approach serving the state\u2019s need for its citizens,\u201d\nTang said. \u201cIndividually, we could not have done it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
NeDNR funded this project.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Innovative groundwater management has long put Nebraska in the national spotlight. Now, with help from a multidisciplinary university team, the state is better managing all of its water resources. In nature, surface water and groundwater are interconnected \u2013 siphoning one affects the other. States, however, have traditionally managed the two water sources independently. To integrate […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":99,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[59,35,60,52,34,45,40,56,53,36,54,15,55,57],"class_list":["post-37","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-architecture","tag-climate-change","tag-community-and-regional-planning","tag-computer-science-and-engineering","tag-education-and-outreach","tag-engineering","tag-food-energy-and-water-systems","tag-groundwater-management","tag-insight","tag-natural-resources","tag-nebraska-department-of-natural-resources","tag-public-policy","tag-water","tag-zhenghong-tang","entry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":313,"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37\/revisions\/313"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}