Mapping Data Center

Water

CynthiaAnnett.org 2026 Workshops

ArcGIS Map of environmental data for Kansas

Free training for the use of GIS to access publicly available information for climate and environmental risk reduction

Environmental Protection Network (EPN) Data Center Resource Directory

Please note that all information on this page is from free publicly available sources and should be considered preliminary and for educational purposes only; many publicly available sources are incomplete and may be outdated. Stakeholders should require planners and developers to provide updated, high resolution map layers to the public for discussion.

Stormwater Runoff and Flooding

When thinking about water we need to take into account:

What is the quantity of water that is coming off the site in the form of stormwater runoff? (This is today's topic)
What is the quality of the water coming off the site as both runoff and discharge through pipes?
How much water is being consumed on site and where is it coming from?

Data resources for flooding and stormwater runoff

Kansas Flooded Image Mapper

2015 high-resolution land cover data for state of Kansas viewed using the free ArcGIS viewer

Kansas Landcover Map

ESRI Landcover viewer

National Water Prediction Service

USGS National Water Dashboard

FEMA's National Flood Hazard Layer (NFHL) Viewer

Kansas Current Effective Floodplain Viewer

EnviroAtlas

Download Google Earth Pro

Lower Kansas River Watershed

CoCoRaHS Rain Gauge Network

These are the actual rain gauge readings for July 17th, 2025. The map is interactive so you can pick other dates and move to other areas. Click here for the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow network (CoCoRaHS) website.

FEMA National Flood Hazard Layer

This map is interactive - search for a location to see flood risk

FEMA National Flood Hazard Layer Viewer

Water Resources in the Kansas River Watershed

Water use by data centers is in the news - for example from our region

Nebraska Examiner: Data centers can guzzle serious water. As some Nebraskans worry, tech giants seek solutions.

Grist: Nebraska wants data centers to come clean about water usage

Published resources about water use can be found on the EPN website click here

There are a number of websites showing the locations of existing and proposed data centers, for example click here

The focus of the materials provided below is a more general overview of water resources available in the Kansas River valley, and on how development impacts stormwater runoff and flooding. Both water quality and water quantity must be considered during planning for any land use change.