HydroServer

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Introduction ​

What is HydroServer? ​

HydroServer is a data management system designed to store, manage, and share a diverse range of environmental time-series data. It is a modular system that connects data sources to researchers and decision-makers.

The HydroServer Instance ​

The core of the ecosystem is your HydroServer Instance. This is the live, hosted environment—consisting of the database, APIs, and apps—that serves as the central hub for your environmental data.

Most organizations will start by following our production deployment guide to spin up their own instance, whether on-premises (using a local server or VM) or through a cloud provider like Google Cloud Platform or Amazon Web Services. Throughout this documentation, when we refer to "an instance," we mean your specific, deployed version of the HydroServer software that you manage and maintain as a persistent web service.

Client-side applications and packages which include: ​

  1. hydroserverpy (Python Package): This is a Python wrapper for the HydroServer REST API, designed for those who want to manage data programmatically. Beyond simple API interaction, the package includes specialized tools for performing time-series ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) and automated quality control.

  2. hydroserver-ts (NodeJS Package): This is a TypeScript library designed to help developers build web applications that need to plug into HydroServer’s APIs.

  3. The Streaming Data Loader: A desktop application designed to automate data ingestion into HydroServer. It monitors local CSV files containing environmental time-series data and automatically loads them into your HydroServer instance, reducing the need for manual uploads.

Cite HydroServer ​

The following are the preferred citations for HydroServer:

Horsburgh, J. S., Lippold, K., Slaugh, D. L., Ramirez, M. (2024). HydroServer: A software stack supporting collection, communication, storage, management, and sharing of data from in situ environmental sensors, Environmental Modelling & Software, 106637, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsoft.2025.106637.

Horsburgh, J. S., Lippold, K., Slaugh, D. L. (2025). Adapting OGC’s SensorThings API and data model to support data management and sharing for environmental sensors, Environmental Modelling & Software, 183, 106241, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsoft.2024.106241.

Next Steps ​

If you'd like a hands-on tutorial for setting up a monitoring site and streaming data to a playground instance of Hydroserver, head over to HydroServer 101.

If you'd like to read more about our system, we recommend starting with Key Concepts.