Quality Assurance Plan for the Water and Atmospheric Resources Monitoring (WARM) Program

The Water and Atmospheric Resources Monitoring (WARM) Program of the Illinois State Water Survey (ISWS) was organized in 1983 as the Illinois Benchmark Network, consolidating several existing and newly formed statewide water and atmospheric resource monitoring efforts. The original structure contained data collections that measured climate variables, soil moisture, shallow groundwater levels, and suspended sediment in streams. In the early 1990s, the initial effort was reorganized, expanded, and renamed the WARM Program. The purpose of the WARM Program is to collect, compile, and analyze quality long-term data on Illinois’ water and atmospheric resources and to provide these data to users and decision-makers across Illinois and the U.S. on a timely basis. In order to provide maximum utility for users, data quality is given a high priority. This WARM Quality Assurance Plan (QAP) provides descriptions and collection procedures of each monitoring network in the program, details the quality assurance and quality control practices implemented for each, and documents archiving and formatting practices employed throughout the program to enhance the reliability of the collected data.