National Institute of Water & Atmospheric Research (NIWA) Selects AQUARIUS Software to Manage New Zealand's Hydrometric Data

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwired - July 15, 2013) - Aquatic Informatics Inc., a global leader in providing innovative software solutions for hydrologic data management and analysis, is announcing today that the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research Ltd. (NIWA) has selected AQUARIUS Software to manage all hydrometric time-series data, including water level, flow, and rain data collected from over 3,500 open and closed sites throughout New Zealand. AQUARIUS will be the primary platform used to store, process, compute, correct, validate, and display all time-series data within the NIWA Hydrometric Network (NHN).

With over 625 staff, NIWA's core purpose is to enhance the economic value and sustainable management of New Zealand's aquatic resources and environments, to provide understanding of climate and the atmosphere, and to increase resilience to weather and climate hazards, improving safety and the well-being of New Zealanders.

"We are excited to have selected AQUARIUS as our modern water data management system. By updating our system, AQUARIUS will allow for the integrated and seamless management of water data collection through the data lifecycle," said Dr. Jochen Schmidt, Chief Scientist, NIWA. "AQUARIUS will improve data accessibility across 14 offices. Rating curve development and maintenance will be enhanced. And, metadata will be centralized with raw and processed data. AQUARIUS will allow NIWA to determine data quality and accuracy in near real-time, while allowing us to track data corrections and changes."

The request for proposal was issued in March 2013. NIWA was looking to replace its existing Tideda (TIme Dependent Data) system, developed internally in 1974, and other supporting legacy systems. It was seeking a modern solution that would provide wider controlled access to hydrometric data and metadata in an environment of ever-shortening timeframes between data collection and the availability of quality indicators. It was important that the solution maintain full traceability of changes and be easily integrated within NIWA's IT architecture. The solution needed to support industry best practices and methods for managing data in the hydrologic domain, including tools for rating maintenance and development. After a formal evaluation process, NIWA selected AQUARIUS.

AQUARIUS will improve work flows, enhance consistency, ensure quality in the processing of water data, as well as improve system maintainability. NIWA has selected a secure, modern, robust platform. AQUARIUS offers an extensible and scalable architecture and a modern solution for capturing, storing, editing, displaying, distributing, and presenting analyses of time-series data. With AQUARIUS, NIWA offices will see increased system performance, efficiency, and stability.

"NIWA is renowned throughout the South Pacific region as a leader in advancing hydrological monitoring methods and practices," said Ed Quilty, President and CEO of Aquatic Informatics. "By choosing AQUARIUS, NIWA will be expanding hydrometric data standardization and inter-operability with North America, where AQUARIUS is used by the largest environmental monitoring agencies, including the U.S. Geological Survey, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Department of Agriculture, U.S. Park Service, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, and Water Survey of Canada."

AQUARIUS is the leading software for water time series data management. The world's most advanced environmental monitoring agencies trust AQUARIUS to achieve higher data integrity, defensibility, and timeliness. Its simple design delivers the latest hydrological science and techniques in an intuitive interface. AQUARIUS allows water resource managers to correct and quality control time series data, build better rating curves, and derive and publish hydrological data in real-time to meet stakeholder expectations, improving decisions about the world's precious water resources.

About Aquatic Informatics Inc.

Aquatic Informatics™ provides software solutions that address critical water data management and analysis challenges for the rapidly growing environmental monitoring industry. Aquatic Informatics is the trusted provider of hydrologic management solutions to hundreds of federal, state/provincial and local government departments, hydropower operators, mining companies, academic groups, and consulting organizations around the world, who collect, manage, and process large volumes of water quality or quantity data.

For more information about Aquatic Informatics, go to www.aquaticinformatics.com

About National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research

NIWA, the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, is a Crown Research Institute established in 1992. NIWA's mission is to conduct leading environmental science to enable the sustainable management of natural resources for New Zealand and the planet. NIWA's purpose is to enhance the economic value and sustainable management of New Zealand's aquatic resources and environments, to provide understanding of climate and the atmosphere and increase resilience to weather and climate hazards to improve the safety and wellbeing of New Zealanders.

For more information about NIWA, visit www.niwa.co.nz