A technical development plan for a next generation water level measurement system

The National Ocean Service (NOS) of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has statutory responsibility for tidal measurements, analyses, predictions, and datum determinations. To satisfy this responsibility, NOS maintains a network of 225 permanent tidal and water level measurement stations throughout the United States and its territories. This network is called the National Water Level Observation Network (NWLON). Because the equipment and technology used to support the NWLON is aging and obsolete, NOS is in the process of replacing it with the Next Generation Water Level Measurement System (NGWLMS). A Program Development Plan (PDP) has been approved and implemented; and this paper describes the Technical Development Plan (TDP) which will be used to bring the total system through its development phases. The NGWLMS is a fully integrated system encompassing new technology sensors and recording equipment, multiple state-of-the-art data transmission options and integrated data processing, analyses, and dissemination subsystems.This paper describes the background to the TDP and the procedures, responsibilities, policies, technical aspects, and schedules necessary to develop, test, acquire, and deploy the NGWLMS plus an additional 150 supplemental stations. The technical aspects delineated include those activities necessary to move the NGWLMS Program from the concept evaluation stage through production and deployment to full operational status, i.e., the provision of services to users. The topics addressed include program management and planning, functional subsystem descriptions, interdependencies and requirements of other systems and programs, reliability and maintainability, integrated logistic support, test and evaluation, personnel training, and deployment procedures. Multiple uses for NGWLMS data, system requirements, and operational constraints are also discussed.