A Web-based Framework for Managing and Sharing Earth-observation Applications for Water Resources

We describe a new web-based framework for discovering, downloading, installing, and configuring earth-observation web applications for water resources. The system is built on the open source Django, Conda, and Tethys Platform. Tethys is a platform for water resources web-based applications. Our framework includes a Tethys App front-end to an app warehouse that allows a web server manager to pull web apps from a central repository based on a standard software packaging and distribution system (Conda) and install them with relative simplicity. We tested the system using a number of apps developed for the member states of the United Nations Group on Earth Observations (GEO) Global Water Sustainability (GEOGloWS) and the NASA-USAID SERVIR programs. We show specific applications, as test implementations, of this system that include: 1) a global streamflow prediction tool; 2) application for visualization of the Global Land Data Assimilation System (GLDAS) and Global Forecast System (GFS) datasets; and 3) a groundwater assessment tool using Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) data. We discuss opportunities for integration of other web applications into this web-app management framework.