The Flow Analysis Summary Statistics Tool for R (‘fasstr’) is a set of R functions to tidy, summarize, analyze, trend, and visualize streamflow data. This package summarizes continuous daily mean streamflow data into various daily, monthly, annual, and long-term statistics, completes annual trends and frequency analyses, in both table and plot formats.
fasstr package 📦 home page and reference guide
This package provides functions for streamflow data analysis, including:
- data tidying (to prepare data for analyses;
add_*andfill_*functions), - data screening (to identify data range, outliers and missing data;
screen_*functions), - calculating summary statistics (long-term, annual, monthly and daily
statistics;
calc_*functions), - computing analyses (volume frequency analyses and annual trending;
compute_*functions), and, - visualizing (data plotting the various statistics;
plot_*functions).
Useful features of functions include:
- the integration of the
tidyhydatpackage to pull streamflow data from a Water Survey of Canada HYDAT database for analyses; - arguments for filtering of years and months in analyses and plotting;
- choosing the start month of your water year;
- selecting for rolling day averages (e.g. 7-day rolling average); and,
- choosing how missing dates are handled, amongst others.
This package is maintained by the Water Management Branch of the British Columbia Ministry of Forests.
You can install fasstr directly from
CRAN:
install.packages("fasstr")To install the development version from
GitHub, use the
remotes package then the
fasstr package:
if(!requireNamespace("remotes")) install.packages("remotes")
remotes::install_github("bcgov/fasstr")To use the station_number argument and pull data directly from a
Water Survey of Canada HYDAT
database
into fasstr functions, download a HYDAT file using the following code:
tidyhydat::download_hydat()There are several vignettes and a cheatsheet to provide more information
on the usage of fasstr functions and how to customize various argument
options.
- Getting Started
- Users Guide
- Computing an Annual Trends Analysis
- Computing a Volume frequency Analysis
- Computing a Full fasstr Analysis
- Internal fasstr Workflows
All functions in fasstr require a daily mean streamflow data set from
one or more hydrometric stations. Long-term and continuous data sets are
preferred for most analyses, but seasonal and partial data can be used.
Other daily time series data, like temperature, precipitation or water
levels, may also be used, but with certain caution as some
calculations/conversions are based on units of streamflow (cubic metres
per second). Data is provided to each function using the either the
data argument as a data frame of flow values, or the station_number
argument as a list of Water Survey of Canada HYDAT station numbers.
When using the data option, a data frame of daily data containing
columns of dates (YYYY-MM-DD in date format), values (mean daily
discharge in cubic metres per second in numeric format), and,
optionally, grouping identifiers (character string of station names or
numbers) is called. By default the functions will look for columns
identified as ‘Date’, ‘Value’, and ‘STATION_NUMBER’, respectively, to be
compatible with the ‘tidyhydat’ defaults, but columns of different names
can be identified using the dates, values, groups column arguments
(ex. values = Yield_mm). The following is an example of an appropriate
data frame (STATION_NUMBER not required):
#> STATION_NUMBER Date Value
#> 1 08NM116 1949-04-01 1.13
#> 2 08NM116 1949-04-02 1.53
#> 3 08NM116 1949-04-03 2.07
#> 4 08NM116 1949-04-04 2.07
#> 5 08NM116 1949-04-05 2.21
#> 6 08NM116 1949-04-06 2.21
Alternatively, you can directly pull a flow data set directly from a
HYDAT database (if installed) by providing a list of station numbers in
the station_number argument (ex. station_number = "08NM116" or
station_number = c("08NM116", "08NM242")) while leaving the data
arguments blank. A data frame of daily streamflow data for all stations
listed will be extracted using tidyhydat and then fasstr
calculations will produce results of the functions.
This package allows for multiple stations (or other groupings) to be
analyzed in many of the functions provided identifiers are provided
using the groups column argument (defaults to STATION_NUMBER). If
grouping column doesn’t exist or is improperly named, then all values
listed in the values column will be summarized.
These functions, start with either add_* or fill_*, add columns and
rows, respectively, to streamflow data frames to help set up your data
for further analysis. Examples include adding rolling means, adding date
variables (WaterYear, Month, DayofYear, etc.), adding basin areas,
adding columns of volumetric discharge and water yields, and filling
dates with missing flow values with NA.
The analysis functions summarize your discharge values into various
statistics. screen_* functions summarize annual data for outliers and
missing dates. calc_* functions calculate daily, monthly, annual, and
long-term statistics (e.g. mean, median, maximum, minimum, percentiles,
amongst others) of daily, rolling days, and cumulative flow data.
compute_* functions also analyze data but produce more in-depth
analyses, like frequency and trending analysis, and may produce multiple
plots and tables as a result. All tables are in tibble data frame
formats. Can use write_flow_data() or write_results() to customize
saving tibbles to a local drive.
The visualization functions, which begin with plot_*, plot the various
summary statistics and analyses as a way to visualize the data. While
most plotting function statistics can be customized, some come pre-set
with statistics that cannot be changed. Plots can be further modified by
the user using the ggplot2 package and its functions. All plots
functions produce lists of plots (even if just one produced). Can use
write_plots() to customize saving the lists of plots to a local drive
(within folders or PDF documents).
If certain n-day rolling mean statistics are desired to be analyzed
(e.g. 3- or 7-day rolling means) some functions provide the ability to
select for that as function arguments (e.g. rolling_days = 7 and
rolling_align = "right"). The rolling day align is the placement of
the date amongst the n-day means, where “right” averages the day-of and
previous n-1 days, “centre” date is in the middle of the averages, and
“left” averages the day-of and the following n-1 days. For your own
analyses you can add rolling means to your data set using the
add_rolling_means() function.
To customize your analyses for specific time periods, you can designate
the start and end years of your analysis using the start_year and
end_year arguments and remove any unwanted years (for partial data
sets for example) by listing them in the excluded_years argument
(e.g. excluded_years = c(1990, 1992:1994)). Alternatively, some
functions have an argument called complete_years that summarizes data
from just those years which have complete flow records. Some functions
will also allow you to select the months of a year to analyze, using the
months argument, as opposed to all months (if you want just summer
low-flows, for example). Leaving these arguments blank will result in
the summary/analysis of all years and months of the provided data set.
To group analyses by water, or hydrologic, years instead of calendar
years, if desired, you can set water_year_start within most functions
to another month than 1 (for January). A water year can be defined as a
12-month period that comprises a complete hydrologic cycle (wet seasons
can typically cross calendar year), typically starting with the month
with minimum flows (the start of a new water recharge cycle). If another
start month is desired, you can choose it using the water_year_start
argument (numeric month). The water year identifier is designated by the
year it ends in (e.g. a water year from Oct 1, 1999 to Sep 30, 2000 is
designated as 2000). Start, end and excluded years will be based on the
specified water year.
For your own analyses, you can add date variables to your data set using
the add_date_variables() or add_seasons() functions.
Yield runoff statistics (in millimetres) calculated in the some of the
functions require an upstream drainage basin area (in sq. km) using the
basin_area argument. If no basin areas are supplied, all yield results
will be NA. To apply a basin area (10 sqkm for example) to all daily
observations, set the argument as basin_area = 10. If there are
multiple stations or groups to apply multiple basin areas (using the
groups argument), set them individually using this option:
basin_area = c("08NM116" = 795, "08NM242" = 22). If a STATION_NUMBER
column exists with HYDAT station numbers, the function will
automatically use the basin areas provided in HYDAT, if available, so
basin_area is not required. For your own analyses, you can add basin
areas to your data set using the add_basin_area() function.
With the use of the ignore_missing argument in most functions, you can
decide how to handle dates with missing flow values in calculations.
When you set ignore_missing = TRUE a statistic will be calculated for
a given year, all years, or month regardless of if there are missing
flow values. When ignore_missing = FALSE the returned value for the
period will be NA if there are missing values. To allow some missing
dates and still calculate statistics, some functions also including the
allowed_missing argument where you provide a percentage (0 to 100) of
missing days per time period.
Some functions have an argument called complete_years which can be
used, when set to TRUE, to filter out years that have partial data
sets (for seasonal or other reasons) and only years with full data are
used to calculate statistics.
To determine the long-term summary statistics of daily data for each
month (mean, median, maximum, minimum, and some percentiles) you can use
the calc_longterm_daily_stats() function. If the ‘Mission Creek near
East Kelowna’ hydrometric station is of interest you can list the
station number in the station_number argument to obtain the data (if
tidyhydat and HYDAT are installed). Statistics over several months can
also be calculated, if of interest. See the summer statistics (from July
to September) in this example.
calc_longterm_daily_stats(station_number = "08NM116",
start_year = 1981,
end_year = 2010,
custom_months = 7:9,
custom_months_label = "Summer")
#> # A tibble: 14 × 8
#> STATION_NUMBER Month Mean Median Maximum Minimum P10 P90
#> <chr> <fct> <dbl> <dbl> <dbl> <dbl> <dbl> <dbl>
#> 1 08NM116 Jan 1.22 1 9.5 0.160 0.540 1.85
#> 2 08NM116 Feb 1.16 0.970 4.41 0.140 0.474 1.99
#> 3 08NM116 Mar 1.85 1.40 9.86 0.380 0.705 3.80
#> 4 08NM116 Apr 8.32 6.26 37.9 0.505 1.63 17.5
#> 5 08NM116 May 23.6 20.8 74.4 3.83 9.33 41.2
#> 6 08NM116 Jun 21.5 19.5 84.5 0.450 6.10 38.9
#> 7 08NM116 Jul 6.48 3.90 54.5 0.332 1.02 15
#> 8 08NM116 Aug 2.13 1.57 13.3 0.427 0.775 4.29
#> 9 08NM116 Sep 2.19 1.58 14.6 0.364 0.735 4.35
#> 10 08NM116 Oct 2.10 1.60 15.2 0.267 0.794 3.98
#> 11 08NM116 Nov 2.04 1.73 11.7 0.260 0.560 3.90
#> 12 08NM116 Dec 1.30 1.05 7.30 0.342 0.5 2.33
#> 13 08NM116 Long-term 6.17 1.89 84.5 0.140 0.680 19.3
#> 14 08NM116 Summer 3.61 1.98 54.5 0.332 0.799 7.64To visualize the daily streamflow patterns on an annual basis, the
plot_daily_stats() function will plot out various summary statistics
for each day of the year. Data can also be filtered for certain years of
interest (a 1981-2010 normals period for this example) using the
start_year and end_year arguments. We can also compare individual
years against the statistics using add_year argument like below.
plot_daily_stats(station_number = "08NM116",
start_year = 1981,
end_year = 2010,
log_discharge = TRUE,
add_year = 1991)
#> $Daily_Statistics
Flow duration curves can be produced using the plot_flow_duration()
function.
plot_flow_duration(station_number = "08NM116",
start_year = 1981,
end_year = 2010)
#> $Flow_Duration
This package also provides a function, compute_annual_frequencies(),
to complete a volume frequency analysis by fitting annual minimums or
maximums to Log-Pearson Type III or Weibull probability distributions.
See the volume frequency analyses documentation for more information.
For this example, the 7-day low-flow quantiles are calculated for the
Mission Creek hydrometric station using the Log-Pearson Type III
distribution and method of moments fitting method (both default). With
this, several low-flow indicators can be determined (i.e. 7Q5, 7Q10).
freq_results <- compute_annual_frequencies(station_number = "08NM116",
start_year = 1981,
end_year = 2010,
roll_days = 7,
fit_distr = "PIII",
fit_distr_method = "MOM")
freq_results$Freq_Fitted_Quantiles
#> # A tibble: 11 × 4
#> Distribution Probability `Return Period` `7-Day`
#> <chr> <dbl> <dbl> <dbl>
#> 1 PIII 0.01 100 0.193
#> 2 PIII 0.05 20 0.277
#> 3 PIII 0.1 10 0.332
#> 4 PIII 0.2 5 0.408
#> 5 PIII 0.5 2 0.588
#> 6 PIII 0.8 1.25 0.812
#> 7 PIII 0.9 1.11 0.946
#> 8 PIII 0.95 1.05 1.07
#> 9 PIII 0.975 1.03 1.17
#> 10 PIII 0.98 1.02 1.21
#> 11 PIII 0.99 1.01 1.31The probability of observed extreme events can also be plotted (using selected plotting position) along with the computed quantiles curve for comparison.
freq_results <- compute_annual_frequencies(station_number = "08NM116",
start_year = 1981,
end_year = 2010,
roll_days = c(1,3,7,30))
freq_results$Freq_Plot
This package is set for delivery. This package is maintained by the Water Management Branch of the British Columbia Ministry of Forests.
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If you would like to contribute to the package, please see our CONTRIBUTING guidelines.
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.
Copyright 2023 Province of British Columbia
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