Hydro-GIS: A Web-Based Interface with the National Hydropower Asset Assessment Program

The Oak Ridge National Laboratory National Hydropower Asset Assessment Program (NHAAP) is an integrated energy, water, and ecosystem research effort for sustainable hydroelectricity generation and water management. The NHAAP was initiated in 2010, starting with gathering, organizing and validating the stream network, facility configuration data, historic generation, and water availability data necessary to trend the production and capacity of U.S. hydropower for the Department of Energy (DOE) Water Power Program.  Data are derived from federally chartered database efforts and include the Reclamation/USACE HydroAmp, FERC eLibrary and DAMS Database, EIA Forms 860/923 Powerplant and Generation Database, USACE National Inventory of Dams, USGS/EPA National Hydrography Dataset, and USGS National Water Information Service. The NHAAP is designed to integrate these data at various scales and provide a tool for strategic planning and decision making to assess the current value of the nation’s hydroelectric infrastructure, quantify the amounts of energy which could be feasibly extracted, and provide an environmental attribution resource for the DOE Water Power Program. HydroGIS is the web-based interface to the NHAAP that allows users to perform spatial queries of the most recent hydropower-related data, including existing dams, hydropower plants, generators, stream segments, water bodies, satellite images, historic generation, and environmental attributes.  Users will be able to access dam-related information and related hydrological, meteorological, and ecological data layers to better assess hydropower dams and their interactions with environmental resources.