To access regional water quality data you must first select a monitoring station. You can choose between selecting a station through a map interface or by using a text based search accessible below or through the navigation menu on the left. Web service functionality has also been provided for those who wish to tailor regional water quality data to their specific needs.
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Web Services is a method of viewing/working with/transfering the data in an intermediate format that is independent from the database, network or application. Programmers use Web Services to create interoperable "services" over the internet. For example, outside organizations can use the EC ENVIRODAT web service to create their own applications that use ENVIRODAT data without having to know intimate details of the ENVIRODAT database. The "client" sends in begin date, end date, station name and variable code, and the web service will return a text file with the data formated in a format that is readable to the "client".
Web Mapping Services are a subset of Web Services, where the information is spatial data. The server can "serve up" specific map data and layers, pretty much anything provided in a GIS format, and clients can "consume" that map data for their own applications without having to send around shape files or big databases around. These map layers can be in pictorial format such as GIF and JPG files or vector based formats. Different map layers can be requested from different web mapping services to create map composite.