USGS Water Services

USGS Water Services server API

These APIs provide OGC-compliant interfaces to USGS water data, letting you download continuous sensor measurements, discrete field measurements, metadata about monitoring locations, and more.

GitHub OpenAPI

Operations 4

GET / Landing page #
GET /collections Collections #
GET /conformance API conformance definition #
GET /openapi This document #

Documentation

📖
Documentation
https://api.waterdata.usgs.gov/docs/

Specifications

⚙
OpenAPI
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/usgs-water/refs/heads/main/openapi/usgs-water-server-api-openapi.yml

Other Resources

🔗
Website
https://api.waterdata.usgs.gov/

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OpenAPI Specification

usgs-water-server-api-openapi.yml Raw ↑ 
openapi: 3.2.0
info:
  contact:
    name: US Geological Survey - Water Data for the Nation
    url: https://waterdata.usgs.gov
    x-ogc-serviceContact:
      addresses: []
      emails:
      - value: wdfn@usgs.gov
      hoursOfService: pointOfContact
      links:
      - href: https://waterdata.usgs.gov/questions-comments/?referrerUrl=https://api.waterdata.usgs.gov
        type: text/html
      name: WDFN Support
  description: 'These APIs provide OGC-compliant interfaces to USGS water data, letting you download continuous sensor measurements, discrete field measurements, metadata about monitoring locations, and more.

    '
  license:
    name: US Government work in the public domain
    url: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/
  termsOfService: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/
  title: USGS Water Data OGC APIs agency-codes Server API
  version: 0.56.0
  x-keywords:
  - geospatial
  - data
  - api
  - hydrology
  - USGS
servers:
- description: 'These APIs provide OGC-compliant interfaces to USGS water data, letting you download continuous sensor measurements, discrete field measurements, metadata about monitoring locations, and more.

    '
  url: https://api.waterdata.usgs.gov/ogcapi/v0
tags:
- description: 'These APIs provide OGC-compliant interfaces to USGS water data, letting you download continuous sensor measurements, discrete field measurements, metadata about monitoring locations, and more.

    '
  externalDocs:
    description: information
    url: https://api.waterdata.usgs.gov
  name: server
paths:
  /:
    get:
      description: Landing page
      operationId: getLandingPage
      parameters:
      - $ref: '#/components/parameters/f'
      - $ref: '#/components/parameters/lang'
      responses:
        '200':
          $ref: https://schemas.opengis.net/ogcapi/features/part1/1.0/openapi/ogcapi-features-1.yaml#/components/responses/LandingPage
        '400':
          $ref: https://schemas.opengis.net/ogcapi/features/part1/1.0/openapi/ogcapi-features-1.yaml#/components/responses/InvalidParameter
        '403':
          $ref: '#/components/responses/Forbidden403'
        '429':
          $ref: '#/components/responses/TooManyRequests429'
        '500':
          $ref: https://schemas.opengis.net/ogcapi/features/part1/1.0/openapi/ogcapi-features-1.yaml#/components/responses/ServerError
      summary: Landing page
      tags:
      - server
  /collections:
    get:
      description: Collections
      operationId: getCollections
      parameters:
      - $ref: '#/components/parameters/f'
      - $ref: '#/components/parameters/lang'
      responses:
        '200':
          $ref: https://schemas.opengis.net/ogcapi/features/part1/1.0/openapi/ogcapi-features-1.yaml#/components/responses/LandingPage
        '400':
          $ref: https://schemas.opengis.net/ogcapi/features/part1/1.0/openapi/ogcapi-features-1.yaml#/components/responses/InvalidParameter
        '403':
          $ref: '#/components/responses/Forbidden403'
        '429':
          $ref: '#/components/responses/TooManyRequests429'
        '500':
          $ref: https://schemas.opengis.net/ogcapi/features/part1/1.0/openapi/ogcapi-features-1.yaml#/components/responses/ServerError
      summary: Collections
      tags:
      - server
  /conformance:
    get:
      description: API conformance definition
      operationId: getConformanceDeclaration
      parameters:
      - $ref: '#/components/parameters/f'
      - $ref: '#/components/parameters/lang'
      responses:
        '200':
          $ref: https://schemas.opengis.net/ogcapi/features/part1/1.0/openapi/ogcapi-features-1.yaml#/components/responses/LandingPage
        '400':
          $ref: https://schemas.opengis.net/ogcapi/features/part1/1.0/openapi/ogcapi-features-1.yaml#/components/responses/InvalidParameter
        '403':
          $ref: '#/components/responses/Forbidden403'
        '429':
          $ref: '#/components/responses/TooManyRequests429'
        '500':
          $ref: https://schemas.opengis.net/ogcapi/features/part1/1.0/openapi/ogcapi-features-1.yaml#/components/responses/ServerError
      summary: API conformance definition
      tags:
      - server
  /openapi:
    get:
      description: This document
      operationId: getOpenapi
      parameters:
      - $ref: '#/components/parameters/f'
      - $ref: '#/components/parameters/lang'
      - description: UI to render the OpenAPI document
        explode: false
        in: query
        name: ui
        required: false
        schema:
          default: swagger
          enum:
          - swagger
          - redoc
          type: string
        style: form
      responses:
        '200':
          $ref: '#/components/responses/200'
        '400':
          $ref: https://schemas.opengis.net/ogcapi/features/part1/1.0/openapi/ogcapi-features-1.yaml#/components/responses/InvalidParameter
        '403':
          $ref: '#/components/responses/Forbidden403'
        '429':
          $ref: '#/components/responses/TooManyRequests429'
        default:
          $ref: '#/components/responses/default'
      summary: This document
      tags:
      - server
components:
  responses:
    TooManyRequests429:
      content:
        application/json:
          examples:
            rateLimitExceeded:
              summary: Rate Limit Exceeded
              value:
                error:
                  code: OVER_RATE_LIMIT
                  message: You have exceeded your rate limit. Make sure you provided your API key from https://api.waterdata.usgs.gov/signup/, then either try again later or contact us at https://waterdata.usgs.gov/questions-comments/?referrerUrl=https://api.waterdata.usgs.gov for assistance.
          schema:
            $ref: '#/components/schemas/Error'
        application/xml:
          example: "&ltresponse&gt\n      &lterror&gt\n        &ltcode&gtOVER_RATE_LIMIT&lt/code&gt\n        &ltmessage&gtYou have exceeded your rate limit. Make sure you provided your API key from https://api.waterdata.usgs.gov/signup/, then either try again later or contact us at https://waterdata.usgs.gov/questions-comments/?referrerUrl=https://api.waterdata.usgs.gov for assistance.&lt/message&gt\n      &lt/error&gt\n    &lt/response&gt"
          schema:
            properties:
              response:
                properties:
                  error:
                    properties:
                      code:
                        type: string
                      message:
                        type: string
                    required:
                    - code
                    - message
                    type: object
                required:
                - error
                type: object
            type: object
        text/csv:
          examples:
            rateLimitCsv:
              summary: Rate Limit Exceeded (CSV)
              value: 'Error Code,Error Message

                OVER_RATE_LIMIT,You have exceeded your rate limit. Make sure you provided your API key from https://api.waterdata.usgs.gov/signup/, then either try again later or contact us at https://waterdata.usgs.gov/questions-comments/?referrerUrl=https://api.waterdata.usgs.gov for assistance.'
          schema:
            type: string
        text/html:
          examples:
            rateLimitHtml:
              summary: Rate Limit Exceeded (HTML)
              value: "&lthtml&gt\n      &ltbody&gt\n        &lth1&gtOVER_RATE_LIMIT&lt/h1&gt\n        &ltp&gtYou have exceeded your rate limit. Make sure you provided your API key from https://api.waterdata.usgs.gov/signup/, then either try again later or contact us at https://waterdata.usgs.gov/questions-comments/?referrerUrl=https://api.waterdata.usgs.gov for assistance.&lt/p&gt\n      &lt/body&gt\n    &lt/html&gt"
          schema:
            type: string
      description: Too Many Requests - Rate limit exceeded.
    '200':
      description: successful operation
    default:
      content:
        application/json:
          schema:
            $ref: https://schemas.opengis.net/ogcapi/processes/part1/1.0/openapi/schemas/exception.yaml
      description: Unexpected error
    Forbidden403:
      content:
        application/json:
          examples:
            missingApiKey:
              summary: Missing API Key
              value:
                error:
                  code: API_KEY_MISSING
                  message: No api_key was supplied. Get one at https://api.waterdata.usgs.gov/signup/
          schema:
            $ref: '#/components/schemas/Error'
        application/xml:
          example: "&ltresponse&gt\n      &lterror&gt\n        &ltcode&gtAPI_KEY_MISSING&lt/code&gt\n        &ltmessage&gtNo api_key was supplied. Get one at https://api.waterdata.usgs.gov/signup/&lt/message&gt\n      &lt/error&gt\n    &lt/response&gt"
          schema:
            properties:
              response:
                properties:
                  error:
                    properties:
                      code:
                        type: string
                      message:
                        type: string
                    required:
                    - code
                    - message
                    type: object
                required:
                - error
                type: object
            type: object
        text/csv:
          examples:
            missingApiKeyCsv:
              summary: Missing API Key (CSV)
              value: 'Error Code,Error Message

                API_KEY_MISSING, No api_key was supplied. Get one at https://api.waterdata.usgs.gov/signup/'
          schema:
            type: string
        text/html:
          examples:
            missingApiKeyHtml:
              summary: Missing API Key (HTML)
              value: "&lthtml&gt\n      &ltbody&gt\n        &lth1&gtAPI_KEY_MISSING&lt/h1&gt\n        &ltp&gtNo api_key was supplied. Get one at https://api.waterdata.usgs.gov/signup/&lt/p&gt\n      &lt/body&gt\n    &lt/html&gt"
          schema:
            type: string
      description: Forbidden - API key is missing or not authorized for this resource.
  parameters:
    f:
      description: The optional f parameter indicates the output format which the server shall provide as part of the response document.  The default format is GeoJSON.  CSV is also available.
      explode: false
      in: query
      name: f
      required: false
      schema:
        default: json
        enum:
        - json
        - html
        - jsonld
        - csv
        type: string
      style: form
    lang:
      description: The optional lang parameter instructs the server return a response in a certain language, if supported.  If the language is not among the available values, the Accept-Language header language will be used if it is supported. If the header is missing, the default server language is used. Note that providers may only support a single language (or often no language at all), that can be different from the server language.  Language strings can be written in a complex (e.g. "fr-CA,fr;q=0.9,en-US;q=0.8,en;q=0.7"), simple (e.g. "de") or locale-like (e.g. "de-CH" or "fr_BE") fashion.
      in: query
      name: lang
      required: false
      schema:
        default: en-US
        enum:
        - en-US
        type: string
  schemas:
    Error:
      properties:
        error:
          properties:
            code:
              description: Error code such as OVER_RATE_LIMIT, see https://api.data.gov/docs/developer-manual/#general-web-service-errors
              type: string
            message:
              description: Error message
              type: string
          required:
          - code
          - message
          type: object
      type: object
  securitySchemes:
    ApiKeyHeader:
      description: Providing your API key gives you higher rate limits when querying our APIs. You can obtain an API key at https://api.waterdata.usgs.gov/signup
      in: header
      name: api_key
      type: apiKey
    ApiKeyQuery:
      description: Providing your API key gives you higher rate limits when querying our APIs. You can obtain an API key at https://api.waterdata.usgs.gov/signup
      in: query
      name: api_key
      type: apiKey