WebRIT WATERS Overview

    At the July 2002 National Water Meeting, we agreed that collecting and managing locational data is becoming a very high priority goal. The need to create simple locational data tools (requiring little or nothing in the way of GIS skills) became evident. Such tools would be available to EPA data partners, such as States, Tribes, local municipalities, and regulated entities, allowing them to contribute directly to the WATERS effort (updating the RAD, Enviromapper, etc.), as illustrated in the graphic above.

    In December 2001, WebRIT WATERS development activities were prioritized, with an emphasis on providing internet map-based capabilities for data entry, validation, updating NHD reach addresses, working with latitudes and longitudes and other spatial information.

WebRIT WATERS v3.1

WebRIT WATERS v3.1 was deployed to EPA’s computing center in December 2006. WebRIT v3.1 primarily focuses on migrating WebRIT to a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA). EPA’s Office of Environmental Information (OEI), the major EPA offices, EPA Regions, and states have been moving towards an SOA to better share resources and reduce costs. With the advent of SOA approaches across the agency, WebRIT is being reconfigured to match the emerging SOA standards, which will ultimately increase the user base and decrease costs by removing redundancy. The current multi-tiered, database-driven WebRIT design, provides EPA with an easy path for migration to the new standards.

As part of the migration towards SOA, WebRIT v3.1 has added and incorporated several new web services and enhanced user interfaces which utilize these services. These web services have been designed so that they can be utilized by any web or non-web application, thus eliminating the need for other programs to develop the same functions and features. One of the enhanced user interfaces in v3.1 is the new WebRIT WATERS Zoom Tool which has been moved to the opening pages to allow users to immediately zoom to a desired location and which utilizes several new web services. In addition to allowing users to zoom to the typical features such as zip code, state, county, city, and latitude/longitude, it also includes Watersheds and program dependant features such as entity_id, beach name, and assessed waterbody name and/or type, depending on the program.

Other enhanced interfaces include a new prototype SOA indexing viewer with greatly improved performance, an enhanced report generation tool and a download tool. The report tool and it’s services include two user level reports and two manager level reports which create formatted PDF reports based on the events and data in the WebRIT tables. The user level reports include a user session report, which generates a report from the user’s current session, and a user history report which allows a user to enter a specified time period. The manager level reports create formatted PDF reports for managers or administrators and includes a user summary report and an organization summary report. The user summary report provides a list of all users associated with the specified program. The organization summary report creates a report of all Entity_IDs associated with the specified program, for the specified list of ORG_IDs, within the user specified time period. It includes summary counts by ORG_ID as well as individual lists of Entity_IDs for all WebRIT tables. The download tool allows users to download shapefiles, at the State or HUC level, of their events and data in the WebRIT for additional review.

WebRIT v3.1 also includes several program specific enhancements which increase the integration between program databases and applications and the WebRIT. WebRIT v3.1 includes a streamlined indexing viewer which is being integrated with the GRTS application and will be integrated with other program applications in the future, such as CWNS.

Another program specific enhancement includes the integration of the 303D and 305B review sites into the WebRIT, thus updating the older review sites and moving them into the EPA’s data center.

WebRIT WATERS v3.0

WebRIT WATERS v3.0 was deployed to EPA's computing center in June 2006. The primary goal of WebRIT v3.0 was to expand upon the previous versions of the WebRIT by providing increased support for more EPA programs and to provide some additional enhancements.

WebRIT v3.0 provides support to aid in cross-program collaboration by facilitating an integrated review and correction process between DWI and CWS programs. Other program related enhancements include the ability for some programs to perform hierarchical editing (e.g. a regional user can edit an event a state user created) and the addition of a tribal boundary layer for some programs.

Other enhancements WebRIT v3.0 provides are as follows; EPA Method, Accuracy, and Description (MAD) codes are now required when entering a new source data shape, users have the ability to copy an event to create a new event and they also have the ability to make selections when using the Zoom By Geography Tool - Zoom by EntityID tab. In addition, there is an enhanced ID selection interface and an enhanced Edit Entity ID tool. Users can now use the Edit Entity ID tool to change the Entity ID for all entities with a given Entity ID or just part of an entity based on the set of selected events. WebRIT v3.0 has also provided additional help in metadata forms and users now have the ability to view and delete partial waterbody events.

WebRIT WATERS v2.0

WebRIT WATERS v2.0 was deployed to EPA's computing center in July 2004. The primary goal of WebRIT v2.0 was to expand upon the previous versions of the WebRIT by providing increased support for more EPA programs. Another goal of this version was to further address the 3rd priority established during the December 2001 meeting:

3. The ability for the user to validate latitudinal and longitudinal data related to NHD reach addressing efforts.

A Program Source Points layer was added to show the original source data points for certain programs. The WebRIT was also further enhanced by adding more program-specific defaults to show only certain tools and layers for each program, thus tailoring the interface for each program using the WebRIT. WebRIT v2.0 also includes a Zoom by Geography tool that provides the ability to zoom directly to a state, zip code, city, county, lat/lon, or user map annotation. Some programs now allow their users to approve/unapprove the indexed data to show that the data are ready to be used by public applications such as Enviromapper for Office of Water. Users can copy existing event data to create new event data for their program. Users can also re-name event data they already created. Users also have the ability to create a report showing the work they have completed during their indexing session. Metadata management was also enhanced to allow users to copy existing metadata and change some values to create new metadata. WebRIT v2.0 also provides support for additional EPA programs, such as Clean Water Needs Survey (CWNS), Drinking Water Intakes (DWI), Electronic Notice of Intent (ENOI), the Permit Application Software System (PASS), Special Appropriations Act Projects (SAAP), and the Water Quality Standards (WQS) program. Other program specific functionality was also added.

WebRIT WATERS v1.5.1

WebRIT WATERS v1.5.1 was deployed to EPA's computing center in June 2003. WebRIT v1.5.1 contained all the same functionality as the previous versions and included a variety of minor interface and functionality improvements. WebRIT v1.5.1 included some increased support for NWIS and added support for EPA's Permit Compliance System (PCS) and Combined Sewer Overflows (CSO) programs. This version provided batch indexing tools that indexed a large set of latitude/longitude points to the NHD and provided the NHD indexed data in the WebRIT for review by the data owners.

WebRIT WATERS v1.5

WebRIT WATERS v1.5 was deployed to EPA's computing center in June 2003. WebRIT v1.5 contained all the same functionality as WebRIT v1.0 with some additional enhancements. More complete metadata management was included in this version. WebRIT v1.5 provided the ability to store metadata in WebRIT database so that it can be recalled and edited in future WebRIT sessions. Metadata was also enhanced by allowing each program to set metadata defaults that would be used in metadata for all users for that program, thus reducing the metadata collection burden for each user. USGS Terra Server topographic maps and aerial photos were incorporated onto the main map and the printed map. The user interface was improved with enhancements to the legend/layer list. Functionality was added to allow the user to add user specific annotation to the map and printed map which includes an ID and description. The ability to type in a latitude/longitude to create a point event without having to click on the map was added. The USGS National Water Information System (NWIS) program was added as a user of the WebRIT as well as custom functionality specifically for NWIS users.

WebRIT WATERS v1.0

    WebRIT WATERS v1.0 was designed to meet the highest priorities established during the December 2001 meeting. These included:

    WebRIT WATERS v1.0, deployed at EPA's central computing environment in April 2003, met items 1 and 2 above as a component of the pilot STORET-Beaches CDX project. Beach (CWA Section 303i) Grant recipients, while submitting programmatic and monitoring data via CDX, have the capability to link to the WebRIT. WebRIT allows the user to click on Beach locations and submit metadata describing how the locations were determined. The user clicks on beach locations, which are translated into NHD reach addresses, captured in the WebRIT database, and, after validation, are transferred to the NHD Reach Address Database for EnviroMapper for Water, Windows to My Environment, and other internet accessible database interfaces.

    WebRIT WATERS v1.0 was also used by Non Point Source (CWA Section 319) Grant recipients to indicate areas where grants are intended to reduce pollutant loadings into NHD water bodies. The user is able to specify multiple load reduction areas for specific pollutants for each grant project.

    WebRIT WATERS v1.0 also provided NPDES permit applicant (PASS - Permit Application Software System) and other users with initial lat/long collection and validation capabilities, by incorporating USGS Terra Server topographic maps and aerial photos centered on user-defined points. WebRIT WATERS v1.0 provided lat/long ID and copy/paste functions . This enabled NPDES permit applicants to meet permit requirements for submitting topographic maps marked with facility locations to the EPA.

Additional overview and training materials

Potential upgrades to future versions of WebRIT WATERS include:

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