Introduction to downloading time series data from waterinfo.be

Introduction

The waterinfo.be API uses a system of identifiers, called ts_id to define individual time series. For example, the identifier ts_id = 78073042 corresponds to the time series of air pressure data for the measurement station in Liedekerke, with a 15 min time resolution. Hence, the ts_id identifier defines a variable of interest from a measurement station of interest with a specific frequency (e.g. 15 min, hourly,…). The knowledge of the proper identifier is essential to be able to download the corresponding data.

Download with known `ts` identifier

In case you already know the ts_id identifier that defines your time serie, the package provides the function get_timeseries_tsid() to download a specific period of the time series.

As an example, to download the air pressure time series data of Liedekerke with a 15 min resolution (ts_id = 78073042) for the first of January 2016:

my_data <- get_timeseries_tsid("78073042", from = "2016-01-01", to = "2016-01-02")
knitr::kable(head(my_data), align = "lcc")

Timestamp	Value	Quality Code
2015-12-31 23:00:00	1020.9	130
2015-12-31 23:15:00	1021.0	130
2015-12-31 23:30:00	1021.1	130
2015-12-31 23:45:00	1021.2	130
2016-01-01 00:00:00	1021.3	130
2016-01-01 00:15:00	1021.5	130

For more information on defining the date period of the download, see this vignette. Let’s have a visual check of our data, using the ggplot2 package:

ggplot(my_data, aes(Timestamp, Value)) + 
    geom_line()

As such, knowing the identifier is the most straightforward way of downloading a time series. In order to find these ts_id identifier, the package supports looking for identifiers based on a supported variable name (limited set of supported variables by VMM) or looking for identifiers by checking all variables for an individual station. These methods are explained in the next sections.

Search identifier based on variable name

For a number of variables, the documentation of the waterinfo.be API provides a direct overview option of all available VMM measurement stations, using the so-called Timeseriesgroup_id. For these variables, the package provides the function get_stations() to download an overview of available measurement stations and the related ts_id identifiers. The latter can be used to download the time series.

get_stations("air_pressure")

##      ts_id station_latitude station_longitude station_id station_no
## 1 78124042         51.20300          5.439589      12213   ME11_002
## 2 78039042         51.24379          4.266912      12208   ME04_001
## 3 78005042         51.02263          2.970584      12206   ME01_003
## 4 78107042         51.16224          4.845708      12212   ME10_011
## 5 78073042         50.88663          4.094898      12210   ME07_006
## 6 78022042         51.27226          3.728299      12207   ME03_017
## 7 78090042         50.73795          5.141976      12211   ME09_012
## 8 78056042         50.86149          3.411318      12209   ME05_019
##              station_name stationparameter_name parametertype_name
## 1             Overpelt_ME                    Pa                 Pa
## 2              Melsele_ME                    Pa                 Pa
## 3               Zarren_ME                    Pa                 Pa
## 4            Herentals_ME                    Pa                 Pa
## 5           Liedekerke_ME                    Pa                 Pa
## 6            Boekhoute_ME                    Pa                 Pa
## 7 Niel-bij-St.-Truiden_ME                    Pa                 Pa
## 8              Waregem_ME                    Pa                 Pa
##   ts_unitsymbol dataprovider
## 1           hPa          VMM
## 2           hPa          VMM
## 3           hPa          VMM
## 4           hPa          VMM
## 5           hPa          VMM
## 6           hPa          VMM
## 7           hPa          VMM
## 8           hPa          VMM

By default, the expected frequency is the 15 min frequency of the time series. However, for some of the variables, multiple frequencies are supported by the API. The package provides a check on the supported variables and frequencies. An overview of the currently supported variables can be requested with the command supported_variables() (either in Dutch, nl, or in English, en). Actually, more variables are available with the API (see next section), but for each of these variables the get_stations() function is supported (i.e. the Timeseriesgroup_id is documented by VMM).

supported_variables("en") %>% 
    as.list()

## $variable_en
##  [1] "discharge"             "soil_saturation"       "soil_moisture"        
##  [4] "dew_point_temperature" "ground_temperature"    "ground_heat"          
##  [7] "irradiance"            "air_pressure"          "air_temperature_175cm"
## [10] "rainfall"              "relative_humidity"     "evaporation_monteith" 
## [13] "evaporation_penman"    "water_velocity"        "water_level"          
## [16] "water_temperature"     "wind_direction"        "wind_speed"

To check which predefined frequencies are provided by the waterinfo.be API for a given variable, the supported_frequencies() function is available:

supported_frequencies(variable_name = "air_pressure")

## [1] "15min"

Hence, for air pressure data, only the 15 min resolution is supported. Compared to evaporation derived by the Monteith equation:

supported_frequencies(variable_name = "evaporation_monteith")

## [1] "15min" "day"   "month" "year"

Multiple resolutions are available. Using the coarser time resolutions can be helpful when you want to download longer time series while keeping the number of records to download low (if the frequency would be sufficient for your analysis):

stations <- get_stations("evaporation_monteith", frequency = "year")
subset_of_columns <- stations %>% select(ts_id, station_no, station_name, 
                                         parametertype_name, ts_unitsymbol)
knitr::kable(subset_of_columns)

ts_id	station_no	station_name	parametertype_name	ts_unitsymbol
94306042	ME01_003	Zarren_ME	PET	mm
94540042	ME11_002	Overpelt_ME	PET	mm
94512042	ME09_012	Niel-bij-St.-Truiden_ME	PET	mm
94526042	ME10_011	Herentals_ME	PET	mm
94470042	ME04_001	Melsele_ME	PET	mm
94456042	ME03_017	Boekhoute_ME	PET	mm
94484042	ME05_019	Waregem_ME	PET	mm
94498042	ME07_006	Liedekerke_ME	PET	mm

When interested in the data of Herentals_ME, we can use the corresponding ts_id to download the time series of PET with a yearly frequency and make a plot with ggplot:

pet_yearly <- get_timeseries_tsid("94526042", period = "P10Y")
pet_yearly %>% 
    na.omit() %>%
    ggplot(aes(Timestamp, Value)) + 
    geom_bar(stat = "identity") +
    scale_x_datetime(date_labels = "%Y", date_breaks = "1 year") + 
    xlab("") + ylab("PET Herentals (mm)")

See this vignette to understand the period = "P10Y" format.

Remark: the get_stations() function only works for those measurement stations belonging to the VMM meetnet (network), related to the so-called datasource = 1. For other networks, i.e. datasource = 4, the enlisting is not supported. Still, a search for data is provided starting from a given station name, as explained in the next section.

Search identifier based on station name

In addition to the option to check the measurement stations that can provide data for a given variable, the package provides the function get_variables() to get an overview of the available variables for a given station, using the station_no. The advantage compared to the ts_id is that these station_no names are provided by the waterinfo.be website itself when exploring the data. When clicking on a measurement station on the map and checking the time series graph, the station_no is provided in the upper left corner in between brackets.

Waterinfo.be example printscreen of time series

So, for the example in the figure, i.e. station_no = zes42a-1066, the available time series are retrieved by using the get_variables() command:

available_variables <- get_variables("zes42a-1066")

## Use datasource: 4 for data requests of this station!

available_variables %>% select(ts_id, station_name, ts_name, 
                               parametertype_name)

##        ts_id               station_name              ts_name parametertype_name
## 1   55414010 Sint-Amands tij/Zeeschelde           O.Gaugings                  W
## 2   55415010 Sint-Amands tij/Zeeschelde                   RC                  W
## 3   55416010 Sint-Amands tij/Zeeschelde                O.01b                  W
## 4   55421010 Sint-Amands tij/Zeeschelde            HW.KD_NKD                  W
## 5   55424010 Sint-Amands tij/Zeeschelde                Pv.05                  W
## 6   55425010 Sint-Amands tij/Zeeschelde              Pv.HWLW                  W
## 7   55430010 Sint-Amands tij/Zeeschelde                Pv.LW                  W
## 8   55437010 Sint-Amands tij/Zeeschelde           Pv.LW.Lang                  W
## 9   55443010 Sint-Amands tij/Zeeschelde               LW.rco                  W
## 10  55445010 Sint-Amands tij/Zeeschelde               LW.typ                  W
## 11  88620010 Sint-Amands tij/Zeeschelde             Astro.01        W_voorspeld
## 12 113485010 Sint-Amands tij/Zeeschelde         Astro.LW.tpk        W_voorspeld
## 13 113487010 Sint-Amands tij/Zeeschelde          Astro.Pv.LW        W_voorspeld
## 14  55434010 Sint-Amands tij/Zeeschelde          HWLW.Kidigi                  W
## 15  55446010 Sint-Amands tij/Zeeschelde         GaugingsDiff                  W
## 16  55449010 Sint-Amands tij/Zeeschelde               LW.tpk                  W
## 17  89205010 Sint-Amands tij/Zeeschelde             KT-det.O        W_voorspeld
## 18  55429010 Sint-Amands tij/Zeeschelde                Pv.HW                  W
## 19  55435010 Sint-Amands tij/Zeeschelde              Pv.Lang                  W
## 20  55447010 Sint-Amands tij/Zeeschelde                LW.KK                  W
## 21 112685010 Sint-Amands tij/Zeeschelde             Astro.05        W_voorspeld
## 22  55418010 Sint-Amands tij/Zeeschelde                HW.KK                  W
## 23  55419010 Sint-Amands tij/Zeeschelde                Pv.10                  W
## 24  55422010 Sint-Amands tij/Zeeschelde               HW.typ                  W
## 25  55428010 Sint-Amands tij/Zeeschelde        O.TerrainCorr                  W
## 26  55439010 Sint-Amands tij/Zeeschelde        O.HWLW.Kidigi                  W
## 27  58546010 Sint-Amands tij/Zeeschelde              LW.hulp                  W
## 28  94251010 Sint-Amands tij/Zeeschelde        AlarmStatus.O                  W
## 29  84309010 Sint-Amands tij/Zeeschelde      KT-Percentile.O        W_voorspeld
## 30 112686010 Sint-Amands tij/Zeeschelde             Astro.10        W_voorspeld
## 31  55420010 Sint-Amands tij/Zeeschelde               HW.tpk                  W
## 32  55426010 Sint-Amands tij/Zeeschelde               Kidigi                  W
## 33  55436010 Sint-Amands tij/Zeeschelde           Pv.HW.Lang                  W
## 34  55417010 Sint-Amands tij/Zeeschelde                 Base                  W
## 35  55427010 Sint-Amands tij/Zeeschelde              LW.Hist                  W
## 36  55438010 Sint-Amands tij/Zeeschelde           HW.t-h.wdw                  W
## 37  55442010 Sint-Amands tij/Zeeschelde             Gaugings                  W
## 38  55444010 Sint-Amands tij/Zeeschelde           LW.t-h.wdw                  W
## 39  96961010 Sint-Amands tij/Zeeschelde                KT-HW        W_voorspeld
## 40 113486010 Sint-Amands tij/Zeeschelde          Astro.Pv.HW        W_voorspeld
## 41  55423010 Sint-Amands tij/Zeeschelde        GaugingsGDiff                  W
## 42  55431010 Sint-Amands tij/Zeeschelde            Base.Lang                  W
## 43  55432010 Sint-Amands tij/Zeeschelde          O.LW.KD_NKD                  W
## 44  55433010 Sint-Amands tij/Zeeschelde                Model                  W
## 45  55440010 Sint-Amands tij/Zeeschelde              HW.Hist                  W
## 46  88623010 Sint-Amands tij/Zeeschelde           Astro.HWLW        W_voorspeld
## 47  96963010 Sint-Amands tij/Zeeschelde              KT-HWLW        W_voorspeld
## 48  99870010 Sint-Amands tij/Zeeschelde KT-AlarmStatus-Max.O        W_voorspeld
## 49 113484010 Sint-Amands tij/Zeeschelde         Astro.HW.tpk        W_voorspeld
## 50  55441010 Sint-Amands tij/Zeeschelde            LW.KD_NKD                  W
## 51  55448010 Sint-Amands tij/Zeeschelde                   Pv                  W
## 52  55450010 Sint-Amands tij/Zeeschelde          O.HW.KD_NKD                  W
## 53  96864010 Sint-Amands tij/Zeeschelde              KT-Last        W_voorspeld
## 54  96962010 Sint-Amands tij/Zeeschelde                KT-LW        W_voorspeld
## 55 113488010 Sint-Amands tij/Zeeschelde        Astro.Pv.HWLW        W_voorspeld

The available number of variables depends on the measurement station. The representation is not standardized and also depends on the type of meetnet. Nevertheless, one can derive the required ts_id from the list when interpreting the field names. Remark that the datasource can be 4 instead of 1 for specific meetnetten (networks). The datasource to use is printed when asking the variables for a station.

In order to download the 10 min time series water level data for the station in Sint-Amands tij/Zeeschelde, the ts_id = 55419010 can be used in the get_timeseries_tsid() function, taking into account the datasource = 4 (default is 1):

tide_stamands <- get_timeseries_tsid("55419010", 
                                     from = "2017-06-01", to = "2017-06-05",
                                     datasource = 4)
ggplot(tide_stamands, aes(Timestamp, Value)) + 
    geom_line() + xlab("") + ylab("waterlevel")

For some measurement stations, the number of variables can be high (lots of precalculated derivative values) and extracting the required time series identifier is not always straightforward. For example, the dat Etikhove/Schuif/Nederaalbeek (K06_221), provides the following number of variables:

available_variables <- get_variables("K06_221")

## Use datasource: 1 for data requests of this station!

nrow(available_variables)

## [1] 104

As the measured variables at a small time resolution are of most interest, filtering on P.15 (or P.1, P.60,…) will help to identify measured time series, for those stations belonging to the meetnet of VMM (datasource = 1):

available_variables <- get_variables("K06_221")

## Use datasource: 1 for data requests of this station!

available_variables %>% 
    filter(ts_name == "P.15")

##                   station_name station_no    ts_id ts_name parametertype_name
## 1 Etikhove/Schuif/Nederaalbeek    K06_221 22322042    P.15                  H
## 2 Etikhove/Schuif/Nederaalbeek    K06_221 22302042    P.15                  H
## 3 Etikhove/Schuif/Nederaalbeek    K06_221 29156042    P.15                  H
## 4 Etikhove/Schuif/Nederaalbeek    K06_221 84094042    P.15 Volume Wachtbekken
## 5 Etikhove/Schuif/Nederaalbeek    K06_221 31882042    P.15                 Hk
##   stationparameter_name
## 1                  Hopw
## 2                Hafw  
## 3    Hafw 100m afwaarts
## 4    Volume_wachtbekken
## 5               Hschuif

Loading and visualizing the last day (period P1D) of available data for the water level downstream (Hafw):

afw_etikhove <- get_timeseries_tsid("22302042", 
                                    period = "P1D",
                                    datasource = 1) # 1 is default

ggplot(afw_etikhove, aes(Timestamp, Value)) + 
    geom_line() + xlab("") + ylab("Volume")

We can do similar filtering to check for time series on other stations, for example the Molenbeek in Etikhove:

available_variables <- get_variables("L06_347")

## Use datasource: 1 for data requests of this station!

available_variables %>%
    filter(ts_name == "P.15")

##         station_name station_no     ts_id ts_name parametertype_name
## 1 Etikhove/Molenbeek    L06_347 276546042    P.15                  v
## 2 Etikhove/Molenbeek    L06_347 276494042    P.15                  Q
## 3 Etikhove/Molenbeek    L06_347 276277042    P.15                  H
##   stationparameter_name
## 1                     v
## 2                     Q
## 3                     H

And use the ts_id code representing discharge to create a plot of the discharge during a storm in 2010:

etikhove <- get_timeseries_tsid("276494042", 
                                from = "2010-11-09", to = "2010-11-16")

ggplot(etikhove, aes(Timestamp, Value)) + 
    geom_line() + xlab("") + ylab("Q (m3/s)")

Check the URL used to request the data

As each of these data requests is actually a call to the waterinfo.be API, the call can be tested in a browser as well. To retrieve the URL used to request certain data (using get_variables(), get_stations() or get_timeseries_tsid()), check the comment() attribute of the returned data.frame, for example:

air_stations <- get_stations("air_pressure")
comment(air_stations)

## [1] "https://download.waterinfo.be/tsmdownload/KiWIS/KiWIS?type=queryServices&service=kisters&request=getTimeseriesValueLayer&datasource=1&timeseriesgroup_id=192918&format=json&metadata=TRUE&md_returnfields=custom_attributes%2Cstation_id%2Cstation_no%2Cstation_name%2Cstationparameter_name%2Cts_unitsymbol%2Cparametertype_name%2Cts_id%2Cca_sta&ca_sta_returnfields=dataprovider"

etikhove <- get_timeseries_tsid("276494042", 
                                from = "2010-11-09", to = "2010-11-16")
comment(etikhove)

## [1] "https://download.waterinfo.be/tsmdownload/KiWIS/KiWIS?type=queryServices&service=kisters&request=getTimeseriesvalues&ts_id=276494042&format=json&datasource=1&returnfields=Timestamp%2CValue%2CQuality%20Code&from=2010-11-09%2000%3A00%3A00&to=2010-11-16%2000%3A00%3A00"