Retrieve manual field measurements for a USGS gage — get_site_field

Returns the record of in-person discharge measurements made by USGS hydrographers at a gage site. These manual measurements are the "ground truth" used to build stage-discharge rating curves, and they provide direct visual correlates to camera imagery taken at the same location and time.

Usage

get_site_field_measurements(
  site_id = NULL,
  cam_id = NULL,
  time = NULL,
  parameter_code = "00060"
)

Arguments

site_id: Character. A single NWIS site number (e.g. "05366800" or "USGS-05366800"). Exactly one of site_id or cam_id must be provided.
cam_id: Character. A camera identifier. If supplied, the function resolves the associated NWIS site ID via find_cameras(). Exactly one of site_id or cam_id must be provided.
time: POSIXct, Date, or character vector of length 1 or 2 specifying the time window. Follows the same semantics as get_site_streamflow(). NULL (default) returns all available measurements.
parameter_code: Character. One or more five-digit USGS parameter codes. Default "00060" (discharge, ft³/s). NULL returns measurements for all parameters.

Value

A tibble with columns:

site_id: Bare NWIS site number.
datetime: POSIXct (UTC) of the measurement.
value: Numeric measured value.
unit: Units of measure (e.g. "ft3/s").
parameter_code: Five-digit parameter code.
approval_status: "Approved" or "Provisional".
measurement_rated: Quality rating of the measurement: "Excellent" (≤2% error), "Good" (≤5%), "Fair" (≤8%), or "Poor" (>8%).
control_condition: Description of channel control conditions during the measurement.

Returns a zero-row tibble (with correct column types) when no measurements are found. Compatible with get_site_streamflow() output via dplyr::bind_rows() on the shared columns. Requires the dataRetrieval package.

Details

Wraps dataRetrieval::read_waterdata_field_measurements().

Examples

if (FALSE) { # \dontrun{
# All discharge measurements at a site
get_site_field_measurements("05366800")

# Measurements during a specific period
get_site_field_measurements(
  "05366800",
  time = c("2020-01-01", "2024-12-31")
)

# Via camera ID
get_site_field_measurements(
  cam_id = "WI_Chippewa_River_at_Grand_Ave_at_Eau_Claire"
)

# Compare field measurements against continuous sensor record
field <- get_site_field_measurements("05366800", time = "P2Y")
sensor <- get_site_streamflow("05366800", time = "P2Y")
} # }