R: Raw Data Import for USGS NWIS QW Data

readNWISqw {dataRetrieval}

R Documentation

Raw Data Import for USGS NWIS QW Data

Description

Imports data from NWIS web service. This function gets the data from here: https://nwis.waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/qwdata 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

Usage

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

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 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.

Details

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

Code	Description
INF	Information
PHY	Physical
INM	Inorganics, Major, Metals
INN	Inorganics, Major, Non-metals
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	Radiochemistry
SED	Sediment
POP	Population/community
OTH	Other
HAB	Habitat
ISO	Stable Isotopes

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

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

Further columns will be included depending on the requested output format (expanded = TRUE or FALSE). Columns that end in "_reported" are the originally reported timezones, but the "tz_cd" column defines the timezone of any POSIXct columns.

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