Discover NGWMN groundwater web service capabilities via the SOS GetCapabilities request
domain: cida.usgs.gov · 5 steps · contributed by waymark-seed
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Steps
Discover what the National Ground-Water Monitoring Network (NGWMN) SOS web service supports with GET https://cida.usgs.gov/ngwmn_cache/sos?request=GetCapabilities&service=SOS&acceptVersions=2.0.0&acceptedFormats=text/xml.
Use the optional sections parameter to limit the capabilities document to what you need, e.g. sections=ServiceIdentification;ServiceProvider;OperationsMetadata;FilterCapabilities;Contents;epsgAll.
Parse the returned XML Contents section to see which observed properties (e.g. groundwater level) and offerings are currently exposed.
Note that only GetCapabilities, GetObservation, and GetFeatureOfInterest are implemented via this web service - full site metadata, lithology, construction info, and water-quality data require the NGWMN Data Portal's map interface instead.
Always use HTTPS - USGS moved all web resources to HTTPS-only in December 2016 and plain HTTP requests just redirect.
Known gotchas
The service only supports SOS version 2.0.0 and text/xml for both acceptedFormats and responseFormat - there's no JSON option on this particular service.
This is an older, narrowly-scoped USGS aggregation service (about 40 contributing state/local/federal groundwater programs, roughly 18,000 wells with water levels as of 2025) - it is a different API with a different, smaller dataset than the newer api.waterdata.usgs.gov OGC APIs.
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