Python package to download time series data from waterinfo.be.
pywaterinfo 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 install pywaterinfo with pip:
pip install pywaterinfo
To initialize data requests from VMM, setup the :class:`~pywaterinfo.Waterinfo` class with vmm as input:
from pywaterinfo import Waterinfo
vmm = Waterinfo("vmm")
The time series provided by waterinfo are all defined by a unique identifier called ts_id. Each combination of a given variable (e.g. air pressure)
measured at a given location (e.g. Overpelt) with a certain frequency (e.g. 15min) is defined by an ts_id identifier. Using such an identifier,
one can download the data of a given period with the command :func:`~pywaterinfo.Waterinfo.get_timeseries_values`. For example, the 15 min air pressure time series
at Overpelt has identifier ts_id = 78124042. To get last day of data for the time series with ID 78124042:
df = vmm.get_timeseries_values(78124042, period="P1D")
pywaterinfo returns the data as a Pandas DataFrame, which provides functionlities to plot and manipulate the time series.
Requesting data from from HIC is very similar:
from pywaterinfo import Waterinfo
hic = Waterinfo("hic")
Get last day of data for the time series with ID 39496010, corresponding to high-resolution (5 min) conductivity measurements in Dendermonde:
df = hic.get_timeseries_values(ts_id="39496010", period="P1D")
Next to the request of time series data for a given time series identifier, other
requests are supported as well. These functions provide multiple ways to search for the ts_id you need to download
certain data. See the documentation website for more info.
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 or 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 <[email protected]> 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. The handling of this token is done by the package itself, but it is important to use the code when initializing the :class:`~pywaterinfo.Waterinfo` instance. For example, using a VMM token:
from pywaterinfo import Waterinfo
vmm_token = "YOUR TOKEN CODE"
vmm = Waterinfo("vmm", token=vmm_token)
The package development and maintenance is supported by Fluves. Part of the initial development of this package has been supported by VITO.
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.
Besides this Python client to gather data from waterinfo.be, there is also an R client available, the wateRinfo package which is part of the ropensci package suite and 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 [email protected].
This project has been set up using PyScaffold 3.2.3. For details and usage information on PyScaffold see https://pyscaffold.org/.