The GEMS/Water Data Centre is a founding member of the Open Geospatial Consortium’s (OGC) Water Quality Interoperability Experiment (WQ IE), which aims to harmonize the exchange of water quality data between different platforms. Water quality monitoring data are continuously collected in local, national and multinational databases, and these need to be linked to provide information on a global scale.
In this context, the WQ IE project has developed an extension of the OGC WaterML 2.0 suite of standards to include water quality data as well. Water ML 2.0 is a standard information model for the representation of water observational data and is based on the ISO 19156 certified OGC Observations and Measurements standard, while the extension is based on the OGC SensorThings API and the OGC standard on Observations, Measurements and Samples.
The WQ IE project is testing the interoperability and connectivity of existing water quality platforms, using the developed framework. A large focus here is on cross-testing, integrating data from different national platforms into a joint platform and to integrate national data into intergovernmental(e.g. WMO) platforms.
An introductory presentation on the WQ IE conceptual model by Kathi Schleidt is available on Youtube.
Members of the GEMS/Water Data Centre presented results of the WQ IE at the EGU General Assembly 2025.
