Jamaica Bay Water Quality (JBWQ) Database Documentation

The 2017 Release of the Jamaica Bay Water Quality Database draws on 2 data sources, the New York City Department of Environmental Protection (NYCDEP) and the National Park Service, Jamaica Bay Unit. The database contains water quality data collected at a number of sampling locations stretching from Rockaway Inlet eastward into the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge from January 2001 through December 2011. For more information on these sources, click on their corresponding FGDC-structured metadata records:

Nearly 60 parameters have been ingested and processed for previewing and downloading from a map interface.

There are several ways to query the parameters, one of which is through the “Explore/Download” tool on the left hand side of the interface where you can select from a list of Parameter Groups:

  • NYCDEP Indicators of Environmental Change
    • Dissolved Oxygen (Surface)
    • Fecal Coliform (Surface)
    • Enterococcus Bacteria (Surface)
    • Secchi Disk Depth

  • Basic Physicochemical Conditions
    • Dissolved Oxygen (Surface)
    • Water Temperature (Surface)
    • Salinity (Surface)
    • pH (Surface)
    • Turbidity (Surface)

  • EPA Trophic State Index
    • Dissolved Oxygen (Surface)
    • Water Temperature (Surface)
    • Salinity (Surface)
    • pH (Surface)
    • TChlorophyll-a (Surface)
    • Total Phosphorus (Surface)
    • Secchi Disk Depth

  • National Estuary Program (NEP) Water Quality Index
    • Secchi Disk Depth
    • Dissolved Oxygen (Surface)
    • Total Kjeldahl Nitrogen (Surface)
    • Chlorophyll-a (Surface)
    • Total Phosphorus (Surface)

Technical information: The Jamaica Bay Water Quality Data Visualization and Access Tool is a is a JavaScript mapping application which gained inspiration from many publicly available web tools and relies on numerous open source efforts; it runs in all popular current web browsers and connects to GeoServer map layers and views stored in a PostgreSQL/PostGIS database. In addition to using the OpenLayers 3 (OL3) JavaScript-based mapping library (as well as a heavily-customized version of the ol3-layerswitcher), much of its functionality is made possible through the use of jQuery and helper libraries. AlaSQL, a “client-side in-memory SQL database,” enables efficient local queries for filtering and summarizing data; the HighCharts library facilitates delivery of attractive custom data charts. The client application uses a Java Spring RESTful web service to custom package and deliver user-selected data requests. See the application architecture diagram below for more details.

The combination of these technologies and a flexible code architecture has allowed us to build a responsive and full-featured web application that we hope will not only be useful to the current community but can be extended to serve and explore similar types of data for other groups and locations.