Water availability, distribution, quality and quantity are critical habitat elements for fish and other water-dependent species. Furthermore, the availability of water is also a pre-requisite for a number of human activities. The density of weather and hydrology observation sites on the North Slope is orders of magnitude less than in other parts of the U.S., making it difficult to document hydrologic trends and develop accurate predictive models where water is a key input. The information that does exist is scattered among many entities, and varies in format. This multi-year data rescue effort project brought together scarce and scattered hydrology data sets, including high-priority datasets held by the Bureau of Land Management, under one data structure and location. These data serve as the basis for designing a North Slope Hydrologic Observation Network and are available to the general public through the project website, IMIQ.
