This paper reports on a community-based water monitoring program, based on informatics of data spanning over 15 years, and the evolution of the system in terms of technology and organizational structure. The technology of the program is evolving from fragmented data storage and use to a consolidated storage and semantically-enhanced informatics hub based on a service oriented architecture (SOA).

Factors driving the evolution and transformation efforts in this program include: a large and expanding raw data set, the inherent complexities associated with large scientific data-sets and the significant opportunities for gaining through data and meta operations sharing.

Benefits anticipated by using a SOA include:
o Better exposed data and operations for data use
o Higher quality of data use based on enforced semantic models and protocols
o Basis for establishing informal protocols as common or best practices
o Broader community of qualified users benefiting from system
o Better decision support based on more flexible and dynamic applications