U.S. Geological Survey
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is a scientific agency of the U.S. government that conducts research and provides data on the natural resources and hazards of the United States. The USGS is known for its work in mapping and monitoring earthquakes, volcanoes, and landslides to help mitigate risks and protect communities. USGS also studies water resources including streamflow, groundwater, and water quality through a nationwide network of monitoring stations. Their public APIs provide programmatic access to real-time earthquake data, water monitoring observations, seismic design parameters, and geospatial data products.
Real signal across most facets with visible, nameable gaps — the contract exists but is thin, or the portal is good while governance and commercial terms are absent.
API Evangelist profiles U.S. Geological Survey the way a machine reads it — 135 machine-readable artifacts across 1 API, pulled from the provider's own public surface and indexed so a developer, an analyst, or an AI agent can evaluate it against every other provider on the network.
Every provider in the network is reduced to the same set of machine-readable artifacts — OpenAPI contracts, event specifications, GraphQL schemas, runnable collections, pricing and rate-limit signals, security posture, OAuth scopes, and the agent surfaces (MCP servers and skills) that let software drive the API on its own. We profile them because the interface is the part of a company you can actually inspect: it is a truer signal of what a provider does than any marketing page. From those artifacts we compute the Kin Score — U.S. Geological Survey scores 42.0/100 (developing), with a separate agent-readiness read of 28/100 (agent aware). The full breakdown is below, followed by every artifact we hold — each card links through to its machine-readable definition on apis.io.
Kin Score
This is the API Evangelist rating — a single, repeatable read computed from the artifacts on this page. Green fill is points earned; the red track is points possible, so every bar shows earned-versus-possible at a glance. Every facet and dimension name is a link: it opens that measurement's page on APIs.io, where the rating runs across the whole catalog — the exact checks that feed it, how every profiled provider distributes on it, and who is at the top of it.
Kin Score
How this is scored →scored 2026-09-08 · rubric v0.20.0
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How we profile U.S. Geological Survey
Each block below is one kind of artifact we hold for U.S. Geological Survey. For each we say what it is and why it earns a place in the profile, then list every one we've indexed — capped at two rows, scroll within the panel for the rest.
APIs 47
Each API is captured as its own OpenAPI definition — every operation, parameter, and response. This is the single most useful machine-readable description of what an API does, and it's what lets us score, lint, mock, and generate against it without asking the provider for anything.
Individual APIs this provider publishes, each with its own machine-readable definition.
USGS Water Data APIs
The USGS Water Data OGC API — an OGC API Features service declaring 18 conformance classes, including OGC API Common Parts 1-3, Features Parts 1-4 and CQL2 filtering, and servin...
Asset Identifier Service (AIS)
The USGS Asset Identifier Service (AIS) allows USGS personnel to reserve, register, publish, and manage USGS persistent identifiers to make research more Findable, Accessible, I...
Seismic Design Web Service
Web services produced by the U.S. Geological Survey for calculating parameter values from various seismic design reference documents for engineering and construction purposes.
ScienceBase
ScienceBase is a USGS Trusted Digital Repository that provides permission-controlled and public access to scientific data products through a REST API supporting upload, document...
StreamStats Web Services
The StreamStats Web Services provide HTTP-accessible hydrological analysis services for delineating drainage areas, estimating peak flows, and computing basin characteristics fo...
USGS Water Services (Legacy)
The original USGS NWIS water services API providing streamflow, groundwater, water quality, and site information via REST protocol in XML and other media types. High availabilit...
U.S. Geological Survey Catalog API
Discover available catalogs, contributors, and supported parameter values.
U.S. Geological Survey Earthquakes API
Query and retrieve earthquake event data from the USGS earthquake catalog.
U.S. Geological Survey Monitoring Locations API
USGS stream gages, groundwater wells, and other water monitoring stations.
U.S. Geological Survey Reference Data API
Reference code tables including agency codes, datum types, and aquifer data.
U.S. Geological Survey Time Series Data API
Continuous and daily value water data from USGS monitoring locations.
U.S. Geological Survey Agency Codes API
Code identifying the agency or organization used for site information, data sources, and permitting agencies. Agency codes are fixed values assigned by the National Water Inform...
U.S. Geological Survey Altitude Datums API
The recommended vertical datum is NAVD88 (North American Vertical Datum of 1988) where applicable as stated in Office of Information Technical Memo 2002.01. NGVD29 (National Geo...
U.S. Geological Survey Aquifer Codes API
Local aquifers in USGS data are identified by an aquifer name and geohydrologic unit code (a three-digit number related to the age of the formation, followed by a 4 or 5 charact...
U.S. Geological Survey Aquifer Types API
Groundwater occurs in aquifers under two different conditions. Where water only partly fills an aquifer, the upper surface is free to rise and decline. These aquifers are referr...
U.S. Geological Survey Channel Measurements API
Channel measurements taken as part of streamflow field measurements.
U.S. Geological Survey Citations API
Citations associated with water measurement methods.
U.S. Geological Survey Combined Metadata API
This endpoint combines metadata from timeseries and field measurements collections by site.
U.S. Geological Survey Continuous API
Continuous data are collected via automated sensors installed at a monitoring location. They are collected at a high frequency and often at a fixed 15-minute interval. Depending...
U.S. Geological Survey Coordinate Accuracy Codes API
Appropriate code on the schedule to indicate the accuracy of the latitude-longitude values.
U.S. Geological Survey Coordinate Datum Codes API
Horizontal datum code for the latitude/longitude coordinates. There are currently more than 300 horizontal datums available for entry.
U.S. Geological Survey Coordinate Method Codes API
Methods used to determine latitude-longitude values.
U.S. Geological Survey Counties API
The name of the county or county equivalent (parish, borough, planning reagion, etc.) in which the site is located. List includes Census Bureau FIPS county codes, names and asso...
U.S. Geological Survey Countries API
FIPS country codes and names.
U.S. Geological Survey Daily API
Daily data provide one data value to represent water conditions for the day. Throughout much of the history of the USGS, the primary water data available was daily data collecte...
U.S. Geological Survey Field Measurements API
Field measurements are physically measured values collected during a visit to the monitoring location. Field measurements consist of measurements of gage height and discharge, a...
U.S. Geological Survey Field Measurements Metadata API
This endpoint provides metadata about field measurement collections, including when the earliest and most recent observations for a parameter occurred at a monitoring location a...
U.S. Geological Survey Hydrologic Unit Codes API
Hydrologic units are geographic areas representing part or all of a surface drainage basin or distinct hydrologic feature identified by a unique number (HUC), and a name. The Un...
U.S. Geological Survey Latest Continuous API
This endpoint provides the most recent observation for each time series of continuous data. Continuous data are collected via automated sensors installed at a monitoring locatio...
U.S. Geological Survey Latest Daily API
Daily data provide one data value to represent water conditions for the day. Throughout much of the history of the USGS, the primary water data available was daily data collecte...
U.S. Geological Survey Latest Field Measurements API
Field measurements are physically measured values collected during a visit to the monitoring location. Field measurements consist of measurements of gage height and discharge, a...
U.S. Geological Survey Medium Codes API
Medium refers to the specific environmental medium from which the sample was collected. Medium type differs from site type because one site type, such as surface water, could ha...
U.S. Geological Survey Method Categories API
Categorical standards for methods describing the associated data's appropriateness for an intended use.
U.S. Geological Survey Method Citations API
Citation identifiers for water measurement methods.
U.S. Geological Survey Methods API
Water measurement or water-quality analytical methods. Codes and descriptions defining a method for calculating or measuring the value of a water quality or quantity parameter. ...
U.S. Geological Survey National Aquifer Codes API
National aquifers are the principal aquifers or aquifer systems in the United States, defined as regionally extensive aquifers or aquifer systems that have the potential to be u...
U.S. Geological Survey Parameter Codes API
Parameter codes are 5-digit codes and associated descriptions used to identify the constituent measured and the units of measure. Some parameter code definitions include informa...
U.S. Geological Survey Peaks API
Annual peak flow values are the maximum instantaneous streamflow values recorded at a particular site for the entire water year from October 1 to September 30. Note that the ann...
U.S. Geological Survey Reliability Codes API
Code indicating the reliability of the data available for the site.
U.S. Geological Survey Server API
The United States Geological Survey (USGS) collects water data at monitoring locations across the United States using both automated sensors and manual data collection. These AP...
U.S. Geological Survey Site Types API
The hydrologic cycle setting or a man-made feature thought to affect the hydrologic conditions measured at a site. Primary and secondary site types associated with data collecti...
U.S. Geological Survey States API
State name or territory. Includes U.S. states and foreign entities classified under FIPS as 'Principal Administrative Divisions'.
U.S. Geological Survey Statistic Codes API
Statistic codes.
U.S. Geological Survey Time Series Metadata API
Daily data and continuous measurements are grouped into time series, which represent a collection of observations of a single parameter, potentially aggregated using a standard ...
U.S. Geological Survey Time Series Revisions API
Approved water data are considered published record, but on occasion changes or deletions (revisions) must be made to data after they are approved. Data revisions are rare becau...
U.S. Geological Survey Time Zone Codes API
The ISO 8601 standard defines time zone offsets as a numerical value added to a local time to convert it to Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), either as +hh:mm or -hh:mm, or repr...
U.S. Geological Survey Topographic Codes API
The code that best describes the topographic setting in which the site is located. Topographic setting refers to the geomorphic features in the vicinity of the site.
Scroll within the panel for all 47 ·
Open Collections 7
Open, tool-agnostic collections carry the same runnable value as Postman without locking you to one client — the portable, forkable form of the same exercise.
Open, tool-agnostic API collections (OpenAPI-derived and Bruno).
API Collection
OPEN COLLECTIONScroll within the panel for all 7 ·
Pricing Plans 1
Pricing is part of the interface. Machine-readable plans tell you what a tier costs and includes before you commit — one of the things the Kin Score reads for access clarity — renamed from commercial clarity in rubric 0.12, because a free statutory interface has access terms and no commercial ones.
Published pricing tiers and plan structures.
Rate Limits 1
Rate limits are the difference between a demo that works and a production integration that doesn't fall over. Publishing them is an operational-transparency signal — and a hard requirement for any agent that plans its own throughput.
Documented rate limits and quota policies.
U S Geological Survey Rate Limits
RATE LIMITSFinOps 1
Cost, billing, and metering signals let a buyer model the financial operations of an API before it's live. We profile them for the same reason we profile pricing: the money is part of the contract.
Cost, billing, and metering signals for API financial operations.
Features 6
The notable capabilities this provider advertises, captured as structured features so they can be searched and compared instead of read one landing page at a time.
Notable capabilities this provider offers.
Earthquake Catalog Query
Search the USGS ANSS ComCat earthquake catalog by geography, time, magnitude, depth, and event type with 20,000 event limit per query.
Real-Time Earthquake Data
Access near real-time earthquake data updated within minutes of events occurring anywhere in the world.
Water Monitoring Locations
Query USGS stream gages, groundwater wells, and other water quality monitoring stations by state, watershed, or geographic area.
Water Data Time Series
Retrieve continuous and daily water data including streamflow, stage, temperature, and water quality parameters.
OGC API Compliance
USGS Water Data APIs implement OGC API Features standard supporting CQL2 filtering, spatial queries, and standardized output formats.
GeoJSON Output
All spatial data returned in GeoJSON format compatible with mapping libraries and geospatial analysis tools.
Semantic Vocabularies 2
JSON-LD contexts give the data shared meaning across APIs. We profile them because semantics are what let a machine reconcile 'customer' here with 'customer' somewhere else.
JSON-LD contexts and semantic vocabularies used across these APIs.
Usgs Earthquake Api Context
JSON-LDUsgs Water Data Api Context
JSON-LDSpectral Rules 3
Governance rulesets we run against this provider's specs — the automated checks behind parts of the score. Profiling them makes the quality bar explicit and re-runnable, not a matter of opinion.
U.S. Geological Survey API Rules
SPECTRALU.S. Geological Survey API Rules
SPECTRALU.S. Geological Survey API Rules
SPECTRALJSON Schema 18
Standalone JSON Schema definitions describe the data models behind the API. We profile them so the shapes are validatable on their own — useful long after a single request is forgotten.
Standalone JSON Schema definitions for this provider's data models.
CountResponse
JSON SCHEMAEarthquakeFeatureCollection
JSON SCHEMAEarthquakeFeature
JSON SCHEMAEarthquakeGeometry
JSON SCHEMAEarthquakeMetadata
JSON SCHEMAEarthquakeProperties
JSON SCHEMACollection
JSON SCHEMACollectionsList
JSON SCHEMAErrorResponse
JSON SCHEMAFeatureCollection
JSON SCHEMALandingPage
JSON SCHEMALink
JSON SCHEMAMonitoringLocationCollection
JSON SCHEMAMonitoringLocationFeature
JSON SCHEMAMonitoringLocationProperties
JSON SCHEMATimeSeriesCollection
JSON SCHEMATimeSeriesFeature
JSON SCHEMATimeSeriesProperties
JSON SCHEMAScroll within the panel for all 18 ·
JSON Structure 18
JSON Structure captures the data shapes in a form built for tooling — a complement to JSON Schema that keeps the model machine-legible.
JSON Structure definitions describing this provider's data shapes.
Usgs Earthquake Api Count Response Structure
JSON STRUCTUREUsgs Earthquake Api Earthquake Feature Structure
JSON STRUCTUREUsgs Earthquake Api Earthquake Geometry Structure
JSON STRUCTUREUsgs Earthquake Api Earthquake Metadata Structure
JSON STRUCTUREUsgs Earthquake Api Earthquake Properties Structure
JSON STRUCTUREUsgs Water Data Api Collection Structure
JSON STRUCTUREUsgs Water Data Api Collections List Structure
JSON STRUCTUREUsgs Water Data Api Error Response Structure
JSON STRUCTUREUsgs Water Data Api Feature Collection Structure
JSON STRUCTUREUsgs Water Data Api Landing Page Structure
JSON STRUCTUREUsgs Water Data Api Link Structure
JSON STRUCTUREUsgs Water Data Api Time Series Collection Structure
JSON STRUCTUREUsgs Water Data Api Time Series Feature Structure
JSON STRUCTUREUsgs Water Data Api Time Series Properties Structure
JSON STRUCTUREScroll within the panel for all 18 ·
Examples 18
Real request and response payloads are what turn a spec from abstract into obvious — and they're one of the twelve things an agent needs to call an API correctly on the first try.
Example request and response payloads for these APIs.
Scroll within the panel for all 18 ·
Security Posture 3
Authentication, domain security, vulnerability disclosure, and trust-center signals — the evidence that a provider takes security seriously enough to document it. We profile it because you can't govern what you can't see.
Authentication, domain security, vulnerability disclosure, and trust-center signals.
Agentic Access 1
An x-agentic-access contract marks which operations are safe for an agent to run on its own and which need a human in the loop. It is the difference between an API an agent can use and one it can use safely.
Recommended x-agentic-access execution contracts for AI agents.
Use Cases 5
What developers actually build with this provider — captured so the catalogue answers 'what is this for', not just 'what does this expose'.
What developers build with this provider.
Earthquake Hazard Monitoring
Emergency managers and scientists monitor real-time earthquake activity for hazard assessment and emergency response planning.
Flood Forecasting
Hydrologists use USGS streamflow data for flood prediction, water supply forecasting, and reservoir management.
Groundwater Management
Water managers track groundwater level trends for sustainable aquifer management and drought assessment.
Environmental Research
Researchers use USGS geological and water data for environmental impact assessments and climate change studies.
Engineering Design
Civil engineers use USGS water data and seismic design services for infrastructure planning and construction.
Integrations 4
Pre-built integrations with other platforms tell you where this provider already fits in a stack.
Pre-built integrations with other platforms and tools.
USGS GitHub Organization
Open-source tools including libcomcat, rcomcat, and other clients for accessing USGS earthquake and water data.
USGS Water Data for the Nation
The flagship USGS water data portal at waterdata.usgs.gov providing maps and tools built on the NWIS water services API.
National Water Information System (NWIS)
Legacy USGS water data system providing the underlying data for Water Data APIs with millions of site records.
FDSN Standards
USGS earthquake API implements FDSN (International Federation of Digital Seismograph Networks) web service specifications.
Resources
Every other property we hold for U.S. Geological Survey — documentation, portals, status pages, policies, and corporate surface — grouped by the job it does, following the integrator's arc from getting started to running in production.
Documentation 1
Reference material describing how the API behaves
Agent Surfaces 1
MCP servers, agent skills, and machine-readable catalogs
Design & Contract 2
Pagination, idempotency, versioning, errors, and events
Build 1
SDKs, sample code, and the tooling you integrate with
Access & Security 3
Authentication, authorization, and security posture
Company 3
The organization behind the API
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This is an independent, third-party profile of U.S. Geological Survey, published by API Evangelist. We do not operate, host, resell, or support these APIs, and we are not affiliated with or endorsed by the company unless stated above. Everything here is built from publicly available information — the company's own site, developer portal, documentation, public repositories, and the specifications it publishes for public use. Nothing is obtained by breaching a system, defeating an access control, or using credentials.
The Kin Score and Agent Readiness rating are independently calculated assessments of a company's public API artifacts, scored against a published rubric. They are not certifications, endorsements, security assessments, or audits.
Corrections, re-scores, and removal are free — no partnership or purchase required, and you do not need to justify the request. A removed company is recorded as unrated, never scored zero for having asked. Acknowledgement within one business day; removal within two.
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