readNWISuv: Instantaneous value data retrieval from USGS (NWIS)

In dataRetrieval: Retrieval Functions for USGS and EPA Hydrology and Water Quality Data

Instantaneous value data retrieval from USGS (NWIS)

Description

Imports data from NWIS web service. This function gets the data from here: https://waterservices.usgs.gov/ A list of parameter codes can be found here: https://nwis.waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/pmcodes/ A list of statistic codes can be found here: https://nwis.waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/help/?read_file=stat&format=table. More information on the web service can be found here: https://waterservices.usgs.gov/rest/IV-Service.html.

Usage

readNWISuv(siteNumbers, parameterCd, startDate = "", endDate = "", tz = "UTC")

Arguments

siteNumbers	character USGS site number (or multiple sites). This is usually an 8 digit number
parameterCd	character USGS parameter code. This is usually an 5 digit number.
startDate	character starting date for data retrieval in the form YYYY-MM-DD. Default is "" which indicates retrieval for the earliest possible record. Simple date arguments are specified in local time. See more information here: https://waterservices.usgs.gov/rest/IV-Service.html.
endDate	character ending date for data retrieval in the form YYYY-MM-DD. Default is "" which indicates retrieval for the latest possible record. Simple date arguments are specified in local time. See more information here: https://waterservices.usgs.gov/rest/IV-Service.html.
tz	character to set timezone attribute of dateTime. Default is "UTC", and converts the date times to UTC, properly accounting for daylight savings times based on the data's provided tz_cd column. Possible values to provide are "America/New_York", "America/Chicago", "America/Denver", "America/Los_Angeles", "America/Anchorage", as well as the following which do not use daylight savings time: "America/Honolulu", "America/Jamaica", "America/Managua", "America/Phoenix", and "America/Metlakatla". See also OlsonNames() for more information on time zones.

Value

A data frame with the following columns:

Name	Type	Description
agency_cd	character	The NWIS code for the agency reporting the data
site_no	character	The USGS site number
dateTime	POSIXct	The date and time of the value converted to UTC
tz_cd	character	The time zone code for dateTime
code	character	Any codes that qualify the corresponding value
value	numeric	The numeric value for the parameter

Note that code and value are repeated for the parameters requested. The names are of the form: X_D_P_S, where X is literal, D is an option description of the parameter, P is the parameter code, and S is the statistic code (if applicable).

There are also several useful attributes attached to the data frame:

Name	Type	Description
url	character	The url used to generate the data
siteInfo	data.frame	A data frame containing information on the requested sites
variableInfo	data.frame	A data frame containing information on the requested parameters
statisticInfo	data.frame	A data frame containing information on the requested statistics on the data
queryTime	POSIXct	The time the data was returned

See Also

renameNWISColumns, importWaterML1

Examples

site_id <- "05114000"
parameterCd <- "00060"
startDate <- "2014-10-10"
endDate <- "2014-10-10"


rawData <- readNWISuv(site_id, parameterCd, startDate, endDate)

rawData_today <- readNWISuv(site_id, parameterCd, Sys.Date(), Sys.Date())

timeZoneChange <- readNWISuv(
  c("04024430", "04024000"), parameterCd,
  "2013-11-03", "2013-11-03"
)

centralTime <- readNWISuv(site_id, parameterCd,
  "2014-10-10T12:00", "2014-10-10T23:59",
  tz = "America/Chicago"
)

# Adding 'Z' to the time indicates to the web service to call the data with UTC time:
GMTdata <- readNWISuv(
  site_id, parameterCd,
  "2014-10-10T00:00Z", "2014-10-10T23:59Z"
)

dataRetrieval documentation built on Oct. 5, 2023, 5:09 p.m.