name: Department of Interior API FinOps
description: >-
  Financial operations considerations for consuming DOI bureau APIs. All DOI
  APIs are federally funded and free to the public. FinOps considerations
  relate to consumer-side infrastructure costs, data storage, and processing
  rather than API usage fees.
costModel:
  type: Free / No Cost
  description: >-
    All DOI bureau APIs (NPS, USGS, BLM, FWS) are provided as a public
    service of the United States federal government at no cost. There are
    no subscription fees, per-request charges, data transfer fees, or
    enterprise licensing costs.

consumerCostConsiderations:
  - category: Infrastructure
    description: >-
      Consumer-side cloud or on-premises compute for processing DOI data
      (e.g., ingesting water sensor data streams, storing earthquake feeds).
      Costs are entirely on the consumer side.
    estimatedImpact: Low to High depending on data volume

  - category: Data Storage
    description: >-
      USGS water, earthquake, and mineral data can be high-volume. Storing
      historical data or real-time streams may require significant storage
      depending on use case.
    estimatedImpact: Medium to High for real-time or bulk ingestion use cases

  - category: Geospatial Processing
    description: >-
      BLM GIS services and USGS geospatial data may require GIS tooling
      (ArcGIS, QGIS, PostGIS) for processing. Licensing for commercial GIS
      tools is a consumer cost.
    estimatedImpact: Medium for geospatial-heavy use cases

  - category: API Key Management
    description: >-
      Free API keys for NPS and USGS services require registration and
      management. No cost, but operational overhead for key rotation and
      storage in secrets management systems.
    estimatedImpact: Low

  - category: Legacy API Migration
    description: >-
      USGS legacy WaterServices (waterservices.usgs.gov) will be
      decommissioned in Q1 2027. Consumer applications must migrate to
      api.waterdata.usgs.gov. Migration engineering effort is a cost.
    estimatedImpact: Medium for applications using legacy water services
    deadline: Q1 2027

optimization:
  - tip: Use registered API keys to access higher rate limits and avoid throttling
    applies_to:
      - NPS Data API
      - USGS Water Data APIs
  - tip: >-
      Use bulk data downloads from USGS Science Data Catalog and data.gov
      for large historical datasets instead of API polling
    applies_to:
      - USGS Water Data APIs
      - USGS ScienceBase
      - USGS Mineral Resources
  - tip: >-
      Cache NPS park, campground, and visitor center data locally as it
      changes infrequently; reduces API calls and processing overhead
    applies_to:
      - NPS Data API
  - tip: >-
      Subscribe to USGS earthquake notification feeds (GeoJSON, Atom) for
      push-based event delivery instead of polling the query API
    applies_to:
      - USGS Earthquake Hazards Web Services
  - tip: >-
      Plan migration from waterservices.usgs.gov to api.waterdata.usgs.gov
      before Q1 2027 decommissioning deadline
    applies_to:
      - USGS Water Data APIs

fundingContext: >-
  DOI and its bureaus (NPS, USGS, BLM, FWS, BIA) are funded through
  annual congressional appropriations. API availability is subject to
  government funding cycles, continuing resolutions, and potential
  government shutdowns, which can cause temporary API outages. Consumers
  of DOI APIs should design for intermittent availability and implement
  caching strategies accordingly.