siteInfo {waterData}

Retrieve site information

Description

Function to retrieve information about a USGS streamgage site

Usage

siteInfo(staid)

Arguments

staid

is a character vector containing USGS site identification number(s). USGS site numbers are usually eight digits long, but can be longer. Users may search for surface-water sites and obtain station identification numbers using the USGS Site Web Service, https://waterservices.usgs.gov/rest/Site-Service.html (U.S. Geological Survey, 2017b); using the National Water Information System: Mapper, https://maps.waterdata.usgs.gov/mapper/index.html (U.S. Geological Survey, 2017a); or using the National Water Information System: Web Interface to daily surface-water data, https://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/dv/?referred_module=sw (U.S. Geological Survey, 2017c). The site identification number needs to be entered as a character, that is in quotes, because many USGS streamgage numbers begin with zero and the leading zero is necessary.

Format

a data frame with the following columns:

Name	Type	Description
staid	factor	USGS station identification number
staname	character	USGS station name
lat	numeric	Decimal latitude
lng	numeric	Decimal longitude

Details

This provides some limited metadata about the USGS streamgage site.

Value

a data frame containing the station identification number(s), the USGS streamgage name(s), the decimal latitude(s), and decimal longitude(s).

Note

Information retrieved using this function can be used to create a map of multiple streamgage sites—see package vignette.

References

U.S. Geological Survey, 2017a, National Water Information System: Mapper, accessed January 3, 2017, at https://maps.waterdata.usgs.gov/mapper/index.html.

U.S. Geological Survey, 2017b, USGS site web service: REST Web Services, accessed January 3, 2017, at https://waterservices.usgs.gov/rest/Site-Service.html.

U.S. Geological Survey, 2017c, USGS surface-water daily data for the Nation: National Water Information System: Web Interface, accessed January 3, 2017, at https://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/dv/?referred_module=sw.

Examples

 ## Not run: 
staInfo <- siteInfo("05054000")
staInfo
staInfo <- siteInfo(c("05054000", "05082500", "06342500"))
staInfo
# a list with an invalid station identification number
staInfo <- siteInfo(c("05054000", "05082500", "0642501"))
 
## End(Not run)