tidyhydat

tidyhydat: Extract and Tidy Canadian Hydrometric Data - Published in JOSS (2017)

https://github.com/ropensci/tidyhydat

Keywords

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An R package to import Water Survey of Canada hydrometric data and make it tidy

README.Rmd

---
title: README
output: md_document
---


    
```{r, echo = FALSE}
knitr::opts_chunk$set(
  collapse = TRUE,
  comment = "#>",
  fig.path = "man/figures/README-"
)
```

# tidyhydat 



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## What does `tidyhydat` do?

- Provides functions (`hy_*`) that access hydrometric data from the HYDAT database, a national archive of Canadian hydrometric data and return tidy data.
- Provides functions (`realtime_*`) that access Environment and Climate Change Canada's real-time hydrometric data source.
- Provides functions (`search_*`) that can search through the approximately 7000 stations in the database and aid in generating station vectors
- Keep functions as simple as possible. For example, for daily flows, the `hy_daily_flows()` function queries the database, *tidies* the data and returns a [tibble](https://tibble.tidyverse.org/) of daily flows.

## Installation
You can install `tidyhydat` from CRAN:
```{r, echo=TRUE, eval=FALSE}
install.packages("tidyhydat")
```


To install the development version of the `tidyhydat` package, you can install directly from the rOpenSci development server:
```{r, echo=TRUE, eval=FALSE}
install.packages("tidyhydat", repos = "https://dev.ropensci.org")
```

## Usage
More documentation on `tidyhydat` can found at the rOpenSci doc page: https://docs.ropensci.org/tidyhydat/

When you install `tidyhydat`, several other packages will be installed as well. One of those packages, `dplyr`, is useful for data manipulations and is used regularly here. To use actually use `dplyr` in a session you must explicitly load it. A helpful `dplyr` tutorial can be found [here](https://cran.r-project.org/package=dplyr/vignettes/dplyr.html).
  
```{r, eval = TRUE, echo=TRUE, message=FALSE, warning=FALSE}
library(tidyhydat)
library(dplyr)
```
  
### HYDAT download
To use many of the functions in the `tidyhydat` package you will need to download a version of the HYDAT database, Environment and Climate Change Canada's database of historical hydrometric data then tell R where to find the database. Conveniently `tidyhydat` does all this for you via:
```{r, eval=FALSE}
download_hydat()
```
This downloads (with your permission) the most recent version of HYDAT and then saves it in a location on your computer where `tidyhydat`'s function will look for it. Do be patient though as this can take a long time! To see where HYDAT was saved you can run `hy_default_db()`. Now that you have HYDAT downloaded and ready to go, you are all set to begin looking at Canadian hydrometric data.

### Real-time
To download real-time data using the datamart we can use approximately the same conventions discussed above. Using `realtime_dd()` we can easily select specific stations by supplying a station of interest:
```{r}
realtime_dd(station_number = "08MF005")
```

Or we can use `realtime_ws`:

```{r}
realtime_ws(
  station_number = "08MF005",
  parameters = c(46, 5), ## see param_id for a list of codes
  start_date = Sys.Date() - 14,
  end_date = Sys.Date()
)
```

## Compare realtime_ws and realtime_dd
`tidyhydat` provides two methods to download realtime data. `realtime_dd()` provides a function to import .csv files from [here](https://dd.weather.gc.ca/hydrometric/csv/). 
`realtime_ws()` is an client for a web service hosted by ECCC. `realtime_ws()` has several difference to `realtime_dd()`. These include:

- *Speed*: The `realtime_ws()` is much faster for larger queries (i.e. many stations). For single station queries to `realtime_dd()` is more appropriate.
- *Length of record*: `realtime_ws()` records goes back further in time. 
- *Type of parameters*: `realtime_dd()` are restricted to river flow (either flow and level) data. In contrast `realtime_ws()` can download several different parameters depending on what is available for that station. See `data("param_id")` for a list and explanation of the parameters.
- *Date/Time filtering*: `realtime_ws()` provides argument to select a date range. Selecting a data range with `realtime_dd()` is not possible until after all files have been downloaded. 

### Plotting

Plot methods are also provided to quickly visualize realtime data:
```{r}
realtime_ex <- realtime_dd(station_number = "08MF005")

plot(realtime_ex)
```

and also historical data:
```{r, fig.height=7, fig.width=12}
hy_ex <- hy_daily_flows(station_number = "08MF005", start_date = "2013-01-01")

plot(hy_ex)
```

## Getting Help or Reporting an Issue

To report bugs/issues/feature requests, please file an [issue](https://github.com/ropensci/tidyhydat/issues/).

These are very welcome!

## How to Contribute

If you would like to contribute to the package, please see our 
[CONTRIBUTING](https://github.com/ropensci/tidyhydat/blob/master/CONTRIBUTING.md) guidelines.
  
Please note that this project is released with a [Contributor Code of Conduct](https://github.com/ropensci/tidyhydat/blob/master/CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md). By participating in this project you agree to abide by its terms.
  
## Citation
Get citation information for `tidyhydat` in R by running:
```{r, echo=FALSE, comment=""}
citation("tidyhydat")
```



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## License
  
  Copyright 2017 Province of British Columbia
  
  Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
  you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
  You may obtain a copy of the License at 
  
  https://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
  
  Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
  distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
  WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
  See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
  limitations under the License.
  

Owner

JOSS Publication

tidyhydat: Extract and Tidy Canadian Hydrometric Data

Published

December 15, 2017

DOI

10.21105/joss.00511

Volume 2, Issue 20, Page 511

Authors

Sam J. Albers
Hydrology and Hydrometric Programs, Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy, British Columbia Provincial Government

Editor

Arfon Smith

Tags

tidy data hydrology Canada

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