dataRetrieval (version 2.5.1)

readNWISqw: Raw Data Import for USGS NWIS QW Data

Description

Imports data from NWIS web service. This function gets the data from here: http://nwis.waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/qwdata A list of parameter codes can be found here: http://nwis.waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/pmcodes/ A list of statistic codes can be found here: http://nwis.waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/help/?read_file=stat&format=table

Usage

readNWISqw(siteNumbers, parameterCd, startDate = "", endDate = "", expanded = TRUE, reshape = FALSE, tz = "")

Arguments

siteNumbers

character of USGS site numbers. This is usually an 8 digit number

parameterCd

character that contains the code for a parameter group, or a character vector of 5-digit parameter codes. See Details.

startDate

character starting date for data retrieval in the form YYYY-MM-DD. Default is "" which indicates retrieval for the earliest possible record. Date arguments are always specified in local time.

endDate

character ending date for data retrieval in the form YYYY-MM-DD. Default is "" which indicates retrieval for the latest possible record. Date arguments are always specified in local time.

expanded

logical defaults to TRUE. If TRUE, retrieves additional information. Expanded data includes remark_cd (remark code), result_va (result value), val_qual_tx (result value qualifier code), meth_cd (method code), dqi_cd (data-quality indicator code), rpt_lev_va (reporting level), and rpt_lev_cd (reporting level type). If FALSE, only returns remark_cd (remark code) and result_va (result value). Expanded = FALSE will not give sufficient information for unbiased statistical analysis.

reshape

logical, reshape the expanded data. If TRUE, then return a wide data frame with all water-quality in a single row for each sample. If FALSE (default), then return a long data frame with each water-quality result in a single row. This argument is only applicable to expanded data. Data requested using expanded=FALSE is always returned in the wide format.

tz

character to set timezone attribute of output columns: startDateTime and endDateTime. Default is an empty quote, which converts the datetimes to UTC (properly accounting for daylight savings times). Possible values to provide are "America/New_York","America/Chicago", "America/Denver","America/Los_Angeles", "America/Anchorage","America/Honolulu","America/Jamaica","America/Managua","America/Phoenix", and "America/Metlakatla"

Value

A data frame with at least 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	sample_dt
Date	The date the sample was collected
sample_tm	character
The reported sample collection time	startDateTime
POSIXct	Combining sample_dt and sample_tm, a date/time column is created, and converted into UTC (unless the tz argument specifies a different time zone)
endDateTime	POSIXct
If any sample_end_dt and sample_end_dt exist, this column is created similar to startDateTime	Name

Further columns will be included depending on the requested output format (expanded = TRUE or FALSE).There are also several useful attributes attached to the data frame:

Name	Type
Description	url
character	The url used to generate the data
queryTime	POSIXct
The time the data was returned	comment
character	Header comments from the RDB file
siteInfo	data frame
A data frame containing information on the requested sites	variableInfo
data frame	A data frame containing information on the requested parameters

Details

Valid parameter code groups are "All," or group codes:

Code

Description

INF

Information

PHY

Physical

INM

Inorganics, Major, Metals (major cations)

INN

Inorganics, Major, Non-metals (major anions)

NUT

Nutrient

MBI

Microbiological

BIO

Biological

IMN

Inorganics, Minor, Non-metals

IMM

Inorganics, Minor, Metals

TOX

Toxicity

OPE

Organics, pesticide

OPC

Organics, PCBs

OOT

Organics, other

RAD

Radiochemical

SED

Sediment

POP

Population/community

If more than one parameter group is requested, only sites that data for all requested groups are returned.

See Also

readWQPdata, whatWQPsites, readWQPqw, constructNWISURL

Examples

siteNumbers <- c('04024430','04024000')
startDate <- '2010-01-01'
endDate <- ''
parameterCd <- c('34247','30234','32104','34220')
## Not run: 
# rawNWISqwData <- readNWISqw(siteNumbers,parameterCd,startDate,endDate)
# rawNWISqwDataReshaped <- readNWISqw(siteNumbers,parameterCd,
#           startDate,endDate,reshape=TRUE)
# parameterCd <- "all"
# rawNWISall <- readNWISqw(siteNumbers,parameterCd,
#           startDate,endDate)
# pgroup <- c("NUT")
# rawNWISNutrients <- readNWISqw(siteNumbers,pgroup,
#           startDate,endDate)
# groups <- c("NUT","OPE")
# rawNWISNutOpe <- readNWISqw(siteNumbers,groups,
#           startDate,endDate) 
# rawNWISOpe <- readNWISqw(siteNumbers,"OPE",
#           startDate,endDate) 
#          ## End(Not run)