wateRinfo facilitates access to waterinfo.be, a website managed by the Flanders Environment Agency (VMM) and Flanders Hydraulics Research. The website provides access to real-time water and weather related environmental variables for Flanders (Belgium), such as rainfall, air pressure, discharge, and water level. The package provides functions to search for stations and variables, and download time series.
To get started, see:
- Function reference: an overview of all wateRinfo functions.
- Articles: tutorials on how to use the package.
You can install wateRinfo from GitHub with:
# install.packages("devtools")
devtools::install_github("ropensci/wateRinfo")When successful, load it as usual:
library(wateRinfo)For a number of supported variables (documented by VMM), the stations providing time series data for a given variable can be listed with the command get_stations().
If you want to know the supported variables, ask for the supported variables:
supported_variables("en")
#> variable_en
#> 1 discharge
#> 6 soil_saturation
#> 7 soil_moisture
#> 8 dew_point_temperature
#> 9 ground_temperature
#> 10 ground_heat
#> 11 irradiance
#> 12 air_pressure
#> 13 air_temperature_175cm
#> 14 rainfall
#> 20 relative_humidity
#> 21 evaporation_monteith
#> 25 evaporation_penman
#> 29 water_velocity
#> 34 water_level
#> 39 water_temperature
#> 40 wind_direction
#> 41 wind_speedListing the available air pressure stations:
get_stations("air_pressure")
#> ts_id station_latitude station_longitude station_id station_no station_name
#> 1 78124042 51.20300 5.439589 12213 ME11_002 Overpelt_ME
#> 2 78005042 51.02263 2.970584 12206 ME01_003 Zarren_ME
#> 3 78039042 51.24379 4.266912 12208 ME04_001 Melsele_ME
#> 4 78073042 50.88663 4.094898 12210 ME07_006 Liedekerke_ME
#> 5 78107042 51.16224 4.845708 12212 ME10_011 Herentals_ME
#> 6 78022042 51.27226 3.728299 12207 ME03_017 Boekhoute_ME
#> 7 78056042 50.86149 3.411318 12209 ME05_019 Waregem_ME
#> 8 78090042 50.73795 5.141976 12211 ME09_012 Niel-bij-St.-Truiden_ME
#> stationparameter_name parametertype_name ts_unitsymbol dataprovider
#> 1 Pa Pa hPa VMM
#> 2 Pa Pa hPa VMM
#> 3 Pa Pa hPa VMM
#> 4 Pa Pa hPa VMM
#> 5 Pa Pa hPa VMM
#> 6 Pa Pa hPa VMM
#> 7 Pa Pa hPa VMM
#> 8 Pa Pa hPa VMMEach of the stations in the list for a given variable, are represented by a ts_id. These can be used to download the data of a given period with the command get_timeseries_tsid(), for example Overpelt (ts_id = 78124042):
overpelt_pressure <- get_timeseries_tsid("78124042",
from = "2017-04-01",
to = "2017-04-02")
head(overpelt_pressure)
#> Timestamp Value Quality Code
#> 1 2017-04-01 00:00:00 1008.8 130
#> 2 2017-04-01 00:15:00 1008.7 130
#> 3 2017-04-01 00:30:00 1008.7 130
#> 4 2017-04-01 00:45:00 1008.6 130
#> 5 2017-04-01 01:00:00 1008.5 130
#> 6 2017-04-01 01:15:00 1008.4 130Making a plot of the data with ggplot2:
library(ggplot2)
ggplot(overpelt_pressure, aes(x = Timestamp, y = Value)) +
geom_line() +
xlab("") + ylab("hPa") +
scale_x_datetime(date_labels = "%H:%M\n%Y-%m-%d", date_breaks = "6 hours")
Another option is to check the available variables for a given station, with the function get_variables(). Let's consider again Overpelt (ME11_002) and check the first ten available variables at the Overpelt measurement station:
vars_overpelt <- get_variables("ME11_002")
head(vars_overpelt, 10)
#> station_name station_no ts_id ts_name parametertype_name stationparameter_name
#> 1 Overpelt_ME ME11_002 78522042 HydJaarMax Ts SoilT
#> 2 Overpelt_ME ME11_002 78523042 HydJaarMin Ts SoilT
#> 3 Overpelt_ME ME11_002 78693042 P.15 Ud WDir
#> 4 Overpelt_ME ME11_002 94682042 MaandMin Ta Ta
#> 5 Overpelt_ME ME11_002 78531042 P.10 Ts SoilT
#> 6 Overpelt_ME ME11_002 78518042 DagGem Ts SoilT
#> 7 Overpelt_ME ME11_002 78521042 HydJaarGem Ts SoilT
#> 8 Overpelt_ME ME11_002 78524042 KalJaarGem Ts SoilT
#> 9 Overpelt_ME ME11_002 78533042 P.60 Ts SoilT
#> 10 Overpelt_ME ME11_002 78694042 Pv.15 Ud WDirDifferent pre-calculated variables are already available and a ts_id value is available for each of them to download the corresponding data. For example, DagGem (= daily mean values) of RH (= relative humidity), i.e. ts_id = 78382042:
overpelt_rh_daily <- get_timeseries_tsid("78382042",
from = "2017-04-01",
to = "2017-04-30")
head(overpelt_rh_daily)
#> Timestamp Value Quality Code
#> 1 2017-04-01 23:00:00 80.19 130
#> 2 2017-04-02 23:00:00 89.58 130
#> 3 2017-04-03 23:00:00 79.56 130
#> 4 2017-04-04 23:00:00 84.13 130
#> 5 2017-04-05 23:00:00 84.19 130
#> 6 2017-04-06 23:00:00 82.71 130ggplot(overpelt_rh_daily, aes(x = Timestamp, y = Value)) +
geom_line() +
xlab("") + ylab(" RH (%)") +
scale_x_datetime(date_labels = "%b-%d\n%Y", date_breaks = "5 days")
Unfortunately, not all variables are documented, for which the check for the appropriate variable is not (yet) fully supported by the package.
More detailed tutorials are available in the package vignettes!
The amount of data downloaded from waterinfo.be is limited via a credit system. You do not need to get a token right away to download data. For limited and irregular downloads, a token will not be required.
When you require more extended data requests, please request a download token from the waterinfo.be site administrators via the e-mail address hydrometrie@waterinfo.be with a statement of which data and how frequently you would like to download data. You will then receive a client-credit code that can be used to obtain a token that is valid for 24 hours, after which the token can be refreshed with the same client-credit code.
Get token with client-credit code: (limited client-credit code for testing purposes)
client <- paste0("MzJkY2VlY2UtODI2Yy00Yjk4LTljMmQtYjE2OTc4ZjBjYTZhOjRhZGE4",
"NzFhLTk1MjgtNGI0ZC1iZmQ1LWI1NzBjZThmNGQyZA==")
my_token <- get_token(client = client)
print(my_token)
#> Token:
#> eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJqdGkiOiI5ODI5NDIzYS01NTNjLTQ3YTUtODUzNS1hZTBhN2FmMTFhN2MiLCJpYXQiOjE2MTk3Nzg0NDYsImlzcyI6Imh0dHA6Ly9sb2NhbGhvc3Q6ODA4MC9LaVdlYlBvcnRhbC9hdXRoIiwiYXVkIjoiMzJkY2VlY2UtODI2Yy00Yjk4LTljMmQtYjE2OTc4ZjBjYTZhIiwiZXhwIjoxNjE5ODY0ODQ2fQ.7pUqf8x0OxE-sA0PJUcKYGysl-DI5-KiodJ1ahfaMCA
#>
#> Attributes:
#> url: http://download.waterinfo.be/kiwis-auth/token
#> type: Bearer
#> expires: 2021-05-01 12:27:26 CESTReceive information on the validity of the token:
is.expired(my_token)
#> [1] FALSECheck when the token expires:
expires.in(my_token)
#> Time difference of 24 hoursUse token when retrieving data:
get_stations(variable_name = "verdamping_monteith", token = my_token)
#> ts_id station_latitude station_longitude station_id station_no station_name
#> 1 94310042 51.02263 2.970584 12206 ME01_003 Zarren_ME
#> 2 94530042 51.16224 4.845708 12212 ME10_011 Herentals_ME
#> 3 94544042 51.20300 5.439589 12213 ME11_002 Overpelt_ME
#> 4 94516042 50.73795 5.141976 12211 ME09_012 Niel-bij-St.-Truiden_ME
#> 5 94488042 50.86149 3.411318 12209 ME05_019 Waregem_ME
#> 6 94502042 50.88663 4.094898 12210 ME07_006 Liedekerke_ME
#> 7 94474042 51.24379 4.266912 12208 ME04_001 Melsele_ME
#> 8 94460042 51.27226 3.728299 12207 ME03_017 Boekhoute_ME
#> stationparameter_name parametertype_name ts_unitsymbol dataprovider
#> 1 pET PET mm VMM
#> 2 pET PET mm VMM
#> 3 pET PET mm VMM
#> 4 pET PET mm VMM
#> 5 pET PET mm VMM
#> 6 pET PET mm VMM
#> 7 pET PET mm VMM
#> 8 pET PET mm VMMBesides this wateRinfo R client to gather data from waterinfo.be, there is also a Python client available. The pywaterinfo package contains similar functionalities.
The Flanders Hydraulics Research center also distributes clients for R, Python and Matlab upon request to download the data they share on waterinfo.be. For more information, contact them directly via hic@vlaanderen.be.
This package is just a small wrapper around waterinfo.be to facilitate researchers and other stakeholders in downloading the data from waterinfo.be. The availability of this data is made possible by de Vlaamse Milieumaatschappij, Waterbouwkundig Laboratorium, Maritieme Dienstverlening & Kust, Waterwegen en Zeekanaal NV en De Scheepvaart NV.
- We welcome contributions including bug reports.
- License: MIT
- Get citation information for
wateRinfoin R doingcitation("wateRinfo"). - Please note that this project is released with a Contributor Code of Conduct. By participating in this project you agree to abide by its terms.
