Simplified Instructions for Retrieving Water Resources Data Using the Hydrodata Software
Written by Ed Ballman
Revised by Randal Brandt, April 2000

1. Be sure that you have the proper CD-ROM database for your needs. At present WRCA has two CD's. One is titled USGS Daily Values, comprising stream discharge and quality information from USGS (and actually other agencies as well) stations in the states of Arizona, California, Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, and Wyoming. The data presented are based on daily mean values. The other CD is titled USGS Peak Values. This disc includes peak discharge information for USGS gages throughout the nation and is generally the one used for flood frequency analysis. The following instructions cover the Daily Values CD. However, the basic searching and data export instructions cover all Hydrodata products.


2. Load the CD into the disc drive on the PC.


3. Double-click on the icon labeled Hydrosphere to initialize the program.


4. The program should open up with a display of all the stations in the database arranged alphabetically by state and increasing USGS station identification number. Note that this is a very large list and searching through it by scrolling can be very time consuming. It is usually much faster to use the Select feature from the toolbar.


5. Clicking on the Select feature displays a pull-down menu of options. This search tool is very powerful as searches can be carried out by various categories and combinations. You simply choose the search category you want and the displayed list is adjusted accordingly. After choosing a search category, clicking on Narrow List is equivalent to an "and" operation. Clicking on Expand List is the same as an "or" operation. Redo Last Selection allows you to remove the last search criterion from a combined search string. The combination of search criteria is displayed at the bottom of the screen. At any point you may scroll through your list. Whenever you are done with a specific search you can begin again by choosing Reset Selection from the Select pull-down menu.


6. The easiest way to locate data for individual stations is to search by Station ID number. If you do not already know the ID number, you can look it up in the Water Resources Data books published by USGS. Choose Station ID from the Select pull-down menu. Enter the ID number, preceded by an asterick ("*") and click Narrow Records.


7. If you do not know the Station ID number for the site you want (or if you wish to search for all stations on a particular stream), it is usually best to begin by limiting your search to a specific state (except when you are attempting to generate a list of stations for an interstate watershed). To limit your search to a specific state simply choose the State search category from the Select pull-down menu and click on the abbreviation for the state in question.


8. The search categories will have a criteria window, and it is generally best to choose the Like option. This allows use of the asterisk ("*") as a wildcard character. This is especially important with searches by station name. An asterisk before and after the words you are searching is most often required. Thus you should type "*Arroyo Mocho*" to find all stations on Arroyo Mocho (Alameda County, California). Simply typing "*Arroyo Mocho" will not match stations since it is unlikely that Mocho is the last word in the station name which usually includes a location reference as well (i.e., "Arroyo Mocho near Pleasanton, California"). Care should be used with the asterisk, though, as some searches can be very long.


9. Once your list of stations is narrowed to the point that you desire, individual station data can be accessed by clicking on the appropriate line in the station list. This will open up a new window that gives information about that specific station such as location, period of record, and parameters measured. Whenever you are finished with a window use Close Window from the File pull-down menu (or Ctrl + F4) as choosing Exit will quit the program.


10. Stations will often have data on more than one parameter (i.e., streamflow, stage, temperature, suspended solids load, etc.). Choose which parameter you want by clicking on, and thus highlighting, the appropriate line.


11. Once the parameter is selected for a specific station you can choose to display daily data, daily statistics, monthly data, monthly statistics, or station remarks. The daily data (click on the D icon on the toolbar) is a tabular list of all the data for the period. Daily statistics (click on the ± icon) gives statistical summaries of the data on a day of the year basis. Monthly data (the M icon) and the monthly statistics (the S icon) are similar but summarize data on a monthly basis. The station remarks (i icon) is a display of the station information that typically appears at the beginning of the published USGS data giving information on the station location, elevation, datum, etc.


12. Data can be directly copied from any of these displays using the Windows clipboard and inserted into other programs (i.e., spreadsheets, word processing documents) if they are available. Data may also be printed using the Print feature.

For copying data to Microsoft Excel, use the following procedures:

• Display the data you wish to copy (eg., daily data).
• From the Edit menu, choose Copy Special.
• This will open a window called Copy to Clipboard.
• Select the Copy Format you want (either as Tables or Columns)
• Select the years you want (either All years or Individual years), and click Copy.
• Minimize Hydrodata and open Excel.
• From the Edit menu in Excel, choose Paste Special.
• Save file.


13. Data can also be exported directly to a disk using the Export command (X icon on the toolbar). Insert a floppy disk into the PC and proceed as follows:
• Open the desired station as above and click on the X icon to open the export window.
• Choose which parameter you want to export (i.e., streamflow) by selecting it on the pop-up window and choosing OK. The export function is independent of the parameter display covered above, so you have to do this even if you are already looking at the data you want.
• Choose the data you want to export from the pull-down menu in the lower left of the export window: daily data, daily statistics, monthly data, or monthly statistics. Also choose the export format you would like to use. For worksheet data manipulation, choose the Lotus option which will import into most current worksheet software. The other choices are generally self-explanatory.
• Choose the years you want to export. Individual years are chosen by clicking on the respective year and then clicking Add. All years are chosen by clicking on All. 
• Export the data by clicking on the floppy disk icon, choosing the floppy disk drive, and selecting a title for the data file. Click OK to execute the export operation.
• To exit the Export window, click on the icon of the circle with a slash through it.


14. When finished with the database exit the program using the File pull-down menu (or by clicking the X in the upper right hand corner). Do not forget any floppy disks you have used. DO NOT forget to return the CD and documentation to the circulation desk.

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Note that there are many other features to this software package. The manuals provided are an excellent resource.