The Indiana Geological and Water Survey provides high-availability, automated access to water data it collects or stewards using standard web services. This page provides basic information about which data sets are available, whether they require authentication, and where to go to find detailed technical information to gain access to these data.

* Note: To see these data on the IGWS website, click on the “Web Applications” tab here: https://igws.indiana.edu/data.

Available Data Services

Springs

Publicly available; no authentication required; throttling limit of 30 requests per minute.

The Springs API is a REST API. Responses to requests are returned in JSON or XML format. All communication between server and client requires an HTTPS protocol to increase security in information transmission.

The Springs API offers access to an array of springs records from IGWS, with optional limits by dates (start and/or end), site number/spring ID, spring county, classification, classification by discharge, physiographic region, parent watershed, and/or if it's on private property. The date filters limit the samples returned for designated spring(s). The other filters limit which spring(s) are returned.

For specific technical documentation about Springs API endpoints and parameters, visit the API Documentation or you can use the "Try it out" button on the API's Swagger user interface to run queries from the Springs endpoint and view responses from the API. Static lists documenting parameters to filter API returns (i.e. county, physiographic region, classification, and classification by discharge) can be found here.

* Note: Output of the Springs API is JSON structured data. If you do not already use a JSON viewer and would like to view the data in an easy-to-read interface, free JSON viewers exist, e.g., http://jsonviewer.stack.hu or https://jsoneditoronline.org.

Indiana Water Balance Network

The IWBN API requires a token received as a JSON response after authenticating via the API using your IGWS account (which can be created here). You must be granted access by the IGWS to receive a valid token. You may request access by emailing the IGWS. Requests to the IWBN data API are limited to a maximum of 30 per minute.

IWBN Data License Terms and Conditions
The IWBN data API requires authentication in order to access data. API tokens are available upon request, as long as the use of the data made available by this private API is according to the following terms and conditions. Any and all use of data from this IWBN API agrees to be bound by the following terms and conditions. Fair use of these data is allowed only if:

  1. The intended use of these data from the Indiana Water Balance Network is non-commercial research and/or private study, and
  2. The request is made by researchers, students, or interested members of the public for their own use only, and
  3. Researchers give credit to the Indiana Water Balance Network using the provided preferred citation:
Trustees of Indiana University, c/o Indiana Geological and Water Survey. IGWS Water API v 1.0.0 <https://igws.indiana.edu/water/api_doc#/>. Date accessed: dd/mm/yyyy.

These data are also available to be licensed for commercial use. Please contact the IGWS for more information on how to license these data.

IWBN Data API
The Indiana Water Balance Network (IWBN) API is a REST API. Responses to requests are returned in JSON format. All communication between server and client requires an HTTPS protocol to increase security in information transmission.

The IWBN API has two endpoints, daily and hourly, which offer access to an array of observations from IGWS monitoring stations. The daily endpoint requires a station or siteID and bearer token, with optional limits by dateTime (start and/or end) and/or observation type. The bearer token is used for authentication and the station or siteID is used to select the station from which observations are returned. The date filters limit the observations returned for the station. For the hourly endpoint, the parameter filter limits which observation type is returned, or returns all observations if left blank.

Data are available on a 24-hour delay, as automated quality control scripts are run each night at midnight. Queries made for same-day data, or into the future, will return no results. Daily data for each day gets populated, or calculated, shortly after midnight each day. Hence, the maximum dateTime end must be limited to the day before.

For specific technical documentation about the IWBN API endpoints and parameters, visit the API Documentation or you can use the "Try it out" button on the API's Swagger user interface to run queries from the IWBN endpoints and view responses from the API. Station IDs and observation types to filter API returns can be found here. See our new user walkthrough on the API documentation page for more detailed guidance on getting started with the IWBN API endpoints.

Dye Traces

In development.