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WISKI

best-in-class configurable environmental data management system

Mock-up of a KISTERS software application.

Empowering environmental sustainability through cutting-edge data management

In today’s rapidly changing world, effective environmental data management is vital for preserving our planet’s precious resources. KISTERS presents our exceptional solution – Water Information System by KISTERS (WISKI).

Enhance your data management, assessment and reporting of water networks & watersheds.

Our software comprehensively streamlines data processing, from data acquisition and storage to data validation and analyses, from reporting to online data publishing. The extensive array of data visualization, statistical formula library, and editing tools have been developed, tested and refined over 30 years.

Whether you work in hydrology, meteorology, stormwater management, dam & reservoir operations, drinking water or wastewater utility, WISKI offers specialized functions and simplifies daily workflows while helping you develop a comprehensive understanding of your environmental data.

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Product highlights

Unlimited storage of monitoring data & metadata

Better support operations and planning by removing data silos and securing information & long-term access to a central source of truth. Store lithographs, well casing diagrams and more groundwater metadata.

Automated quality control & data editing tools

Validate & correct data values in bulk, and manually review as needed for quality data to effectively manage resources. Also review detailed audit trail of data activities, and exercise rollback functionality if necessary.

All-in-one analytics, alerting & reporting software

Calculate statistics & custom algorithms to alert on real-time or forecast data, or report compliance. Automate the preparation of reports, either pre-scheduled or run as needed, exported in popular file formats & distributed via popular methods.

Enhance other data systems like telemetry, SCADA, LIMS & more

Integrate data using APIs to apply WISKI capabilities to maximize data evaluation, processing & sharing by groups across your enterprise.

Your benefits

1

Address complex problems with collaboration

Beyond compliance reporting, lead actionable change. This is only possible when data are accessible by people who can use it. Share temporal data with GIS analyst colleagues, or notify flood control districts and water quality managers of reservoir drawdowns.

2

Integrate quality data for decision-making

Data of a high confidence level is requisite for solving environmental challenges. Automated & flexible options to collect, validate & secure data from disparate sources delivers meaning information to you for conduct in-depth analysis, trend identification, reporting and modelling. Distill data of the highest confidence levels.

3

Sustain your environmental data management

Used by some of North America’s largest water monitoring networks, WISKI & our experience developing robust IT solutions ensure you have a stable & reliable system for the long term. Continuous enhancement results in the lowest frequency of failure & the highest ability to bring a failed system back to full operation.

4

Improve efficiency of data management

Maximize human use of data & analysis. WISKI offers extensive automation options, analytics, user-defined quality codes and alarm settings to create new opportunities for operational audits.

5

Enhance maintenance & operations

Meta data storage enables asset tracking of probes, sensors, even vehicles used by staff / volunteers. Reporting tools can document storage, repair or deployment of monitoring devices.

6

Support employee engagement; lower turnover

WISKI’s great at calculating long-term 10th and 90th percentiles, constituent loadings, etc. More important is what your employees, your best assets, do with quality data. Support the full engagement of your team to solve problems, not repair aging databases.

Scalable to your needs

Organizations who rely on WISKI range from not-for-profit organizations to federal government laboratories. Staff size doesn’t matter. It’s the amount and use of information that determines if this solution is right for you.

Whether the extent of your IT resources is a desktop computer or your own data center, we believe you should have access to best-in-class comprehensive data management for water, weather and environmental resources. We offer a few licensing options which can be discussed.

Discover for yourself why this commercial IT solution is often configured to distinct needs of agencies, utilities and research institutes to achieve their water data management priorities around the globe.

Popular features

  • Alarm manager

    Alarm manager

    This WISKI option imports incoming messages, classifies them, and distributes salient information to appropriate individuals to respond as necessary.

    Manage multiple types of alerts as you import data from a variety of sources.

    Although the most common use case is a times series with a threshold, this tool is not limited to hydrological time series. Any object with a time stamp and value can be subject to a customized alert. Alternatively, the lack of available data can be continuously monitored to indicate good or poor system performance.

    Configure escalation procedures.

    Users can further configure multi-level alarms based on various classifications.

    Manage notification recipients by availability and media.

    Alerts can be communicated via email, SMS (text), and voice messages as well as pop-up windows.

    Archive messages for future use, reference or continual improvements.

  • Discharge measurement management

    Discharge measurement management

    BIBER is our discharge measurement application for use in the field and office. Directly collect discharge measurements with a field computer. Alternatively, collect and calculate flow measurement data in the office.

    When defining a cross-section, BIBER gives users many options to set the require amount of bank points, verticals and depth measurements. The wizard offers constructive depth suggestions, while the velocity distribution is displayed on the vertical for plausibility control.

    Determine a primary measuring protocol for the entire cross section to facilitate rapid data collection, so the most complex cross-sections can be displayed easily. Make changes to saved measuring procedures for selected verticals, as needed.

    Every recorded measurement can be edited. Discharges from the partial cross-section are displayed for all evaluation procedures, and individual verticals may be excluded from evaluation. Any saved measurements are available for comparison.

    Moreover, BIBER features a device manager — allowing hydrographers and techs to track sensors, current meters, impulse converters, and calibration equations. Configure and manage sensors from any manufacturer.

    Perform graphical evaluations and generate isotach diagrams. Easily combine wet and dry profiles into a single composite, saving dates of validity and comments / remarks. Most closely examine abnormal and regular vertical profiles.

  • Rating curve editing & management

    Rating curve editing & management

    SKED is our rating curve editing and management application for use in the office.

    Automate import of rating curves and configure the application to focus attention on deviations and irregularities.

    Generate solutions and workflows for natural flow and standard cross-sections, which comply with USGS methods. Easily solve complex tasks, such as solutions according to the stage-fall method or hysteresis. Preloaded functions support advanced fit analysis.

    Generate and manage any number of curves & versions for a specific station and associated parameters. The user interface supports shift curves and 3-point stage shifts. Edit regression ranges and retrace steps with the “undo” feature, while windows empower users to enter precise values if they don’t prefer to click and drag points.

    Even construct curves for natural cross-sections with an irregular distribution of measurements using descriptor points & interpolation.

    Convert simple or complex regressions into standard cross-sections. Then set standard procedures to handle all cross-section scenarios. Set regression ranges to border curves seamlessly or overlap. Select regression processes for up to 10 segments.

    Maintain curve histories. Filter measurements on a variety of criteria & select particular curves to determine results for specific time ranges.

    Verify ratings using confidence intervals & statistical plausibility checks. Blend intervals for each segment, or exclude measurements from the regression.

    Supplement sparse measurement data with constructed / estimated points.

  • Common hydrologic operations

    Common hydrologic operations

    Constrained by limited time and staff, water data analysts are optimizing their analytical capabilities to identify insights, prepare compliance reports, and make recommendations from the volume and complexity of information.

    WISKI’s pre-programmed functions calculate an array of trend analyses using a variety of methods like linear, polynomial, exponential, sigmoidal — allowing mean changes to be determined for any user-defined period of time.

    Frequently used operations include

    • Cumulative frequency analysis
      Easily view how often a certain phenomenon occurs below or exceeds a certain value. Determine how likely an event might occur in the future based on past frequency.
    • Long-term statistics ranking
      Determine percentage deviations when comparing ranked & long-term values. Commonly reported metrics include the highest daily mean flows for the last 5 years, the highest instantaneous flows over the last 10 years, or the highest flow peaks above a threshold for the last 30 years.
    • Double mass analysis
      Validate data when monitoring procedures are modified. Check measured values for consistency & homogeneity. Account for changes in data collection protocol by comparing observations from different sensors assigned to the same GIS coordinates or information from neighboring gauges.
    • Duration curve analysis
      View time series values to reveal probabilities for exceedance or nonexceedance of a particular value. Evaluate the return period of extreme events using a variety of methods such as annual duration, long term, or mean annual.
    • Frequency distribution
      Partition the value range from the source time series into classes, to calculate the number or percentage of values in respective classes. Users specify upper and lower limits as well as class size.
    • Overlaid plot
      Visually compare observations such as discharge measurements by overlaying time periods of a time series. For example, analyze rainfall or snowpack from every January within 10 years.
  • Web Services & APIs

    Web Services & APIs

    We’re dedicated to helping you overcome hurdles to data transfer.

    Our web interoperability services create a spectrum of communication & data exchange capabilities:

    • One-way open data publishing
    • Two-way ingestion & writing data via HTTP
    • Real-time data verification
    • Options for downloading, processing, harmonizing units & more data

    Flexibly control privileges to access data, eliminating time-consuming data requests with either scheduled or real-time publication of frequently asked information.

    Eliminate the hassle of converting data formats as our web services support many formats and industry-approved open data standards, so your time and data are more effective serve you & your communities.

    Cost-effectively control & expand your monitoring network to better anticipate weather events
    Collaborate with data-sharing partners, neighboring conservation authorities / watershed districts and consultants with approved access to approved datasets. For example, basin-wide cooperatives allow for more affordable nitrate or salinity management among irrigation and drainage authorities. Shared real-time hydromet data can effectively manage flooding risk and maximize lead time for emergency services to proactively respond to threats.

    Track regional conservation and restoration efforts
    Synthesize hydrological information, water quality data, and ecological inventory across stakeholders beyond your local or county jurisdiction. The same web services work across provincial / state boundaries and on a continental scale — and even across multiple scientific disciplines — as demonstrated by the U.S. EPA’s Internet of Watersheds or GEMStat, the United Nations’ Global Environmental Monitoring System for water quality.

  • Web Portals

    Web Portals

    Online access to accurate & timely information helps align goals & priorities set forth by water utilities and watershed districts. Conveniently publish quality-assured data online from WISKI, choosing from either a public / open data website or a login-protected web portal.

    Define your intended audience. Select datasets you wish to share. Control login credentials and visitor privileges to download reports, export data tables, and save charts and graphs.

    Features include interactive maps, data filters, and dashboards comprising graphs and color-coded displays.

    Login-protected web portal supports occasional or rare WISKI users.
    Within the web portal framework, specialized online applications are designed to help occasional or rare WISKI users who need to do more than only read data.

    • The Bulletin Management application automatically generates template-based reports with up-to-date monitoring data, approved forecasts, and pre-configured weather or flood information. Upon approval, bulletins are locked for editing, viewable by authorized users, and archived.
    • The Advanced Data Validation application enables asynchronous or a combination of synchronous and asynchronous QA/QC methods invaluable for validation, editing, and estimation. Users define the automated conversion of raw data into highly efficient inputs for operational and modeling systems.
  • Esri arcGIS integration

    Esri arcGIS integration

    Integrate geo-referenced data with time series information to better visualize trends. Explore problems and/or progress occurring within a particular station, user-define group of stations, state or region. The combination of market-leading GIS tools and data management technologies empowers users to simultaneously view, query, and perform complex operations on data from multiple stations. Create static or animated maps for reports, websites and presentations.

    WISKI Extensions / Plugins for ArcGIS and ArcGIS Pro

    WISKI Arc extensions and plugins easily provide access to information secured in KISTERS data management systems. Esri GIS users can readily discover, analyze, report and share insights. KISTERS plugins show WISKI navigation tree views within the Esri desktop application. Directly access WISKI data – station basic data, time series, and quality samples – for analysis and viewing with extensive GIS functionality.

    The barrier-free integration with GIS enables geospatial analysts to load current data values as symbols for a specified time series group within the ArcGIS session. Also digitize and adapt station coordinates on the basis of available background maps if no measured coordinate information is available.

    This option is highly recommended for agencies with users highly skilled in GIS. It saves considerable time as these professionals extend the value of ArcView, ArcGIS or ArcGIS Pro interfaces, and won’t need to learn to navigate the WISKI user interface.

    WISKI Web Mapping

    Using the ArcGIS Javascript API, WISKI Web products provide high-quality mapping tools within an online interface. The API allows KISTERS to embed maps in the WISKI Web solution, so users can visualize time-aware data using the TimeSlider widget.

  • Performance dashboards for system administrators

    Performance dashboards for system administrators

    Process Analytics

    This web application empowers WISKI system administrators to easily review system performance in real time. A dashboard dynamically summarizes (audit) log types – errors, warnings, or messages.

    In addition, monitor performance of system components such as WISKI distributed service manager automated import and export of time series data processes via KiIOsys the file preprocessing optimizer KiRolling, or downloads from the SODA telemetry server.

    Logs from actions associated with the components listed above are also searchable.

    Administrators can use a flexible filter to explore more than log types and components over a period of time or on a specific date. All messages, shown to end-users, during in the selected time range will be displayed.

    The “Daily Overview” tab further breaks down hourly performance.

    System Analytics

    The command line program, initiated by Windows Scheduler, aids system administrators in conducting long-term WISKI system performance monitoring.

    This program operates even if the WISKI server is offline. Continual system monitoring data it collects can be analyzed within KISTERS web dashboards or third-party software like Zabbix.

    Similar to web dashboards for the Process Analytics application, system administrators can drill down to see processes that compromise system performance. They can investigate any unexpected server shutdown.

    Red lines in the screen shot reveal a significant amount of queuing during calculations and imports lasting longer than expected.

    The “Metrics List” tab allows administrators to choose specific time-series and graph their performance or compared them.

“Facing unpredictable rainfall, gathering more data and advancing scientific understanding of the region’s water resources are more important than ever. Modernizing our data system maximizes knowledge transfer and enhances the work of staff.”

Mojave Water Agency

Interested in WISKI?

Let us know your goals & challenges.

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