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USGS Water Services time-series-metadata API

Daily data and continuous measurements are grouped into time series, which represent a collection of observations of a single parameter, potentially aggregated using a standard statistic, at a single monitoring location. This endpoint provides metadata about those time series, including their operational thresholds, units of measurement, and when the earliest and most recent observations in a time series occurred.

USGS Water Services time-series-metadata API is one of 43 APIs that USGS Water Services publishes on the APIs.io network, described by a machine-readable OpenAPI specification.

Tagged areas include time-series-metadata. The published artifact set on APIs.io includes an OpenAPI specification and API documentation.

This API exposes 8 operations across 5 paths, and defines 3 schemas. It is described by OpenAPI 3.0.2, at version 0.56.0.

Requests are made against a single base URL, https://api.waterdata.usgs.gov/ogcapi/v0.

8 operations 5 paths 3 schemas 5 GET2 OPTIONS1 POST

Metadata

The identity and technical contract details declared by the specification.

Specification
OpenAPI 3.0.2
API Version
0.56.0
Base URL
https://waterservices.usgs.gov/nwis/iv/
Authentication
API Key, API Key
Terms of Service
Resource Areas
1

Authentication & Security 2

USGS Water Services time-series-metadata API declares 2 security schemes for authenticating requests. An API key is passed in the header as api_key (ApiKeyHeader). An API key is passed in the query as api_key (ApiKeyQuery).

  • ApiKeyHeader — 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
  • ApiKeyQuery — 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

Paths & Operations 8

Across 5 paths, the API surfaces 8 operations — 5 GET, 2 OPTIONS, 1 POST. Each is listed below with its method, path, parameters, and response codes.

time-series-metadata 8

Daily data and continuous measurements are grouped into time series, which represent a collection of observations of a single parameter, potentially aggregated using a standard st…

GET
/collections/time-series-metadata
Get Time series metadata metadata
describeTime-series-metadataCollection 2 params → 200400403404429500
GET
/collections/time-series-metadata/items
Get Time series metadata items
getTime-series-metadataFeatures 32 params → 200400403404429500
OPTIONS
/collections/time-series-metadata/items
Options for Time series metadata items
optionsTime-series-metadataFeatures → 200
POST
/collections/time-series-metadata/items
Get Time series metadata items with CQL2
getCQL2Time-series-metadataFeatures body → 200400403429500
GET
/collections/time-series-metadata/items/{featureId}
Get Time series metadata item by id
getTime-series-metadataFeature 4 params → 200400403404429500
OPTIONS
/collections/time-series-metadata/items/{featureId}
Options for Time series metadata item by id
optionsTime-series-metadataFeature 1 param → 200
GET
/collections/time-series-metadata/queryables
Get Time series metadata queryables
getTime-series-metadataQueryables 4 params → 200400403404429500
GET
/collections/time-series-metadata/schema
Get Time series metadata schema
getTime-series-metadataSchema 2 params → 200400403404429500

Schemas 3

The contract defines 3 schemas that model the data the API accepts and returns. The most detailed are queryable (6 properties), queryables (1 property), Error (1 property). Each schema is shown below with its type and property counts.

Error
object
1 property
queryable
object
6 properties 2 required
queryables
object
1 property 1 required

Specification

The full machine-readable OpenAPI contract behind this narrative.

Source

usgs-water-time-series-metadata-api-openapi.yml Raw ↑

Other APIs USGS Water Services publishes across the network.

USGS Instantaneous Values Service
USGS Daily Values Service
USGS Site Service
USGS Statistics Service
USGS Groundwater Levels Service
Water Quality Portal (WQP) API
USGS Water Data Statistics API
USGS Water Services agency-codes API
USGS Water Services altitude-datums API
USGS Water Services aquifer-codes API
USGS Water Services aquifer-types API
USGS Water Services channel-measurements API
Where this information came from

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