Kansas water right and water use information
The Kansas Geological Survey (KGS), in cooperation with the Kansas Department of Agriculture’s Division of Water Resources (KDA-DWR) has developed and maintains the Water Information Management and Analysis System program, or WIMAS, to “query, analyze, and map Kansas water right data” including water use information. The website is accessible at: https://geohydro.kgs.ku.edu/geohydro/wimas/.
Here are a few basics:
- You will not get query results without providing your email address.
- You can access basic water right data by water right file number or location (county, legal description or range of latitude-longitudes). If you are not familiar with the area, it is good to start bigger than you need (e.g. with a county if you interest is at the township level) and zoom in to the area of interest.
- The initial query will produce a table with water right file numbers, use made of water, source, water right status and the location of the point(s) of diversion. The list will include inactive and dismissed rights, unless you check the “Filter for only Active Non/dismissed Water Rights” box.
- You can click on the water right number for more details on a particular water right.
- Reported water use for the chosen water right can be viewed as a table or graph or downloaded as a text file for importing into a spreadsheet.
- WIMAS also includes a “Mapper” that plots water right(s) and its point(s) of diversion resulting from: a) a query of water rights or b) for a selected individual water right.
- Before producing a map, you check the “Filter for only Active Non/dismissed Water Rights” box on the query results
- under Layers, it is often helpful to turn on the PLSS layer which show townships boundaries and numbers; and section boundaries and numbers as you zoom in.
- Points of Diversion (PDs) will be shown, color-coded by use of water.
- When you zoom in far enough, water right numbers will appear (although the labels often overlap). When a PD is covered by more than one water right number, a PD will have multiple labels.
- If you click on a PD, its WR number and use will be shown. The “details” includes the PD’s Section-Township-Range and ID. Clicking on this link will take you to the PD detail page of WIMAS.
- The provided information does not include information on such matters as overlapping water rights.
- Dropdowns – when an individual water right is selected, a summary of key attributes for that water right from KDA-DWR’s “Water Right Information System” (WRIS) is provided. Kansas water rights can have multiple points of diversion (PD), places of use (PU), and uses made of water (UMW). Only one PD, PU and UMW is displayed at a time. Accessing additional information is allowed through use of these dropdowns. Similarly, only one step of a water right’s “Action Trial” is displayed at a time.
- WIMAS can provide total water use in an area; a plot of a neighborhood of water rights; and the ability to download the data queried.
- For detailed documentation on WIMAS and its use, see the documentation report.
To come:
- More details on the use of each interface with screen shots, a description of outputs, and tips of processing the resulting data.
- One or more videos demonstrating the same.
Page last updated: 3/7/2022