Lake Water Level observations for 1036 lakes in Wisconsin, 1900 - 2015

This dataset contains the daily lake level observations and other lake attributes in Wisconsin. It covers 1036 lakes including 461 seepage lakes and 575 drainage lakes. It has 342,319 observations. The time span of this dataset is between January 1st, 1900 and December 31st, 2015. The data sources include USGS, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, North Temperate Lakes-Long Term Ecological Research (NTL-LTER), North Lakeland Discovery Center, Waushara County, and City of Shell Lake. Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources has two data sources: historical lake levels recorded in paper files and a recently-initiated citizen monitoring program. The latter are stored in Wisconsin DNR’s Surface Water Integrated Monitoring System (SWIMS). The data compilation consists of four major steps. First, data were retrieved from different data sources. Then data from different sources but for the same lakes were tied together using the datum information if possible. The WISCID is used to denote unique data sets by lake and data source. If two data sources could be tied to the same datum, they share a WISCID. Third, three rounds of quality assurance and quality control (QAQC) were conducted. Finally, more attributes such as lake area, lake depth, and lake type were added to the lakes. This data compilation was funded by the Wisconsin Groundwater Joint Solicitation.