Water Quality Monitoring in Greater Yellowstone National Parks 2006-2024

Water quality data from three National Park Service projects (BICAWQ01, GRTEWQ01, YELLWQ01) monitoring rivers and springs in Bighorn Canyon, Grand Teton, and Yellowstone National Parks. The period of record spans from January 10, 2006, to November 14, 2024, with data organized into five tables including Projects, Locations, and Results. Data includes field measurements, observations, and lab analyses filtered to include only accepted, certified, or final value statuses.

Use Cases

• Analyze temporal trends in water quality characteristics from the Results table across the 2006-2024 period for specific stations like the Madison River (YELL_MDR).
• Map monitoring station attributes from the Locations.csv table, such as hydrologic unit codes (HUC), to assess spatial coverage across the Greater Yellowstone Network.
• Correlate specific measured characteristics from the Characteristics.csv domain with project purposes described in the Projects.csv table to evaluate monitoring objectives.
• Identify sampling gaps by examining the Activity Start Date field in the Results data across the 13 listed stations, including the Snake River (GRTE_SNR01) and Lamar River (YELL_LM000.5M).

Strengths

• Data covers a long-term period of nearly 19 years, from 2006-01-10 to 2024-11-14.
• Includes data from 13 distinct monitoring stations across three major national parks.
• Data is validated, filtered to include only accepted, certified, or final value statuses.
• Structured into five logical tables (Projects, Locations, Results, HUC, Characteristics) for relational analysis.

Limitations

• Unknown total row count and specific column details for the core Results data table.
• Data is a static snapshot; the description notes more current data may be available externally, indicating potential staleness.
• Geographic scope is limited to specific stations within three national parks, not a comprehensive survey of the region.

Provenance

Source

National Park Service Greater Yellowstone Network, sourced from NPSTORET back-end files.

Collection Method

Field measurements, observations, and lab analyses collected through structured water quality monitoring projects.

Time Range

2006-01-10 to 2024-11-14

Freshness

Snapshot as of 2025-03-14; last platform update was 2026-03-22, but the underlying data record ends in 2024.

Geography

Monitoring stations in Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area, Grand Teton National Park, and Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming and Montana, USA.