This page will be updated frequently with information about the status of dataRetrieval services.
Overview
As of March 11, 2024, NWIS services are “frozen”: any public data retrieval will not include any new data.
NWIS qw services
Discrete water quality samples data are undergoing modernization, and NWIS services pulling that discrete water quality data (‘qw’) are no longer being updated as of March 11, 2024. A full decommission is expected approximately 6 months later. Learn more about the upcoming change and where to find the new samples data in our blog.
If you have additional questions about the NWIS qw data service, email CompTools@usgs.gov.
WQP: USGS Data
New USGS data: temporarily not accessible on the Water Quality Portal (WQP). Data are still being collected, but are not publicly available. This limited availability is expected to last a few weeks.
New USGS data will be accessible again upon release of the new “Data Profiles” (how the data is formatted by the WQP), which will be in the “WQX version 3.0 format” (WQX = Water Quality Exchange). These profiles should be available starting April 2024. These profiles are not yet available to test. When they are, we will update this page with recommendations.
The current WQP data profiles that are considered “WQX version 2.0 profiles”. These will remain available after the rollout of version 3.0. Eventually they will be retired, but there is not yet an estimated time line.
What to expect: dataRetrieval specific
readNWISqw
Functioning normally but does not include any new
data collected after March 11, 2024. This function will be going away
soon, so consider switching to readWQPqw or
readWQPdata. When the NWIS qw service is eventually shut
down - the readNWISqw will be removed from
dataRetrieval.
Fall 2024
When the NWIS services are decommissioned (possible September 2024):
the readNWISqw function will be removed from
dataRetrieval.
See
vignette("qwdata_changes", package = "dataRetrieval") for
information on how to convert your workflows from
readNWISqw to readWQPqw.
whatNWISdata
NWIS services are “frozen”: the returned data availability will also be frozen ONLY for “qw” data_type_cd results. All other data types should not be affected.
Fall 2024
When the NWIS services are decommissioned (possible September 2024):
there will no longer be any “qw” information provided in the output of
whatNWISdata. Discrete water-quality availability will be
available via WQP services. More information will be provided as we
learn more.
Here’s an example of what will change:
what_NWIS <- whatNWISdata(siteNumber = "05114000")
nrow(what_NWIS)
[1] 407
nrow(what_NWIS[what_NWIS$data_type_cd == "qw",])
[1] 381So for site “05114000”, there are 381 NWIS qw parameters that have been measured. Starting mid-March 2024, the data availability for those 381 parameters will be frozen…even if new data is collected. Eventually those 381 rows of data will not be returned, only 26 rows of data will be returned (407-381).
Once the full transition is completed, we will update with additional guidance. Water Quality Portal data availability can be obtained:
what_WQP_full <- readWQPsummary(siteid = "USGS-05114000")
library(dplyr)
what_WQP <- what_WQP_full |>
group_by(siteid = MonitoringLocationIdentifier, CharacteristicName) |>
summarise(count = sum(ResultCount, na.rm = TRUE),
start_year = min(YearSummarized, na.rm = TRUE),
end_year = max(YearSummarized, na.rm = TRUE))
nrow(what_WQP)
[1] 203You’ll notice that there are fewer rows in the what_WQP
data frame (203) than “qw” data in the what_NWIS (381).
This is because there are sometimes more than one parameter code that
are associated with a “CharacteristicName”.
Known Dependencies
HASP
The data_available function will need to be updated.
If you know of additional R package dependencies that will be affected by these changes, please email CompTools@usgs.gov.