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The USGS (United States Geological Survey) Water Quality Agent is a data loading agent available in EQuIS Live for obtaining water quality data from the following USGS Water Quality web APIs:

•Current Conditions: Measurements are commonly recorded at a fixed interval of 15 to 60 minutes and transmitted to the USGS every hour.

•Daily Data: Summary of all data for each day; may represent the daily mean, median, maximum, minimum, and/or other derived value.

•Historical Observations: Current Conditions or Daily Data, that occurred in the past.

 

Adding Station

 

Before using the USGS Water Quality Agent, add one or more sites to the DT_LOGGER table:

1.Execute the equis.get_ids stored procedure to get a new LOGGER_ID, or add the site (DT_LOGGER row) in EQuIS Professional.

2.Set LIVE_DATA_SOURCE to USGS-WQ-UV to get Current Values, or USGS-WQ-DV to get Daily Values.

3.Set LOGGER_CODE to a site number (e.g., 15057596 for the Salmon River, at Gustavus, AK site).

How to search for a site:

a.Go to the USGS Water Quality website.

b.Select 'Current Conditions' or 'Daily Data'.

c.For 'Current Conditions' – Select a 'Station Number' (e.g., 15057596 for 'SALMON R AT GUSTAVUS AK').

For 'Daily Data' – Choose the 'Site Selection Criteria' (e.g., 'State/Territory'), and Submit. On the next page, make selection(s) (e.g., Alaska), and Submit. Select a 'Site Number' (e.g., 15057596 for 'SALMON R AT GUSTAVUS AK').

Note: You can add two DT_LOGGER rows for a site—one for Current Conditions, and one for Daily Data—if the site provides both types of data. The LOGGER_CODE will be the same, but the LIVE_DATA_SOURCE will be different.

4.Set STATUS_FLAG to 'A' to activate the logger.

 

Loading Data

 

The USGS Water Quality Current Values Agent, Daily Values Agent, or Historical Data Loader can be run as a scheduled EQuIS Information Agent (EIA), at the desired frequency, to automatically load data as often as needed. The Current Values are typically recorded at an interval of 15 to 60 minutes, and transmitted to USGS Water Quality hourly; the Daily Values are updated daily. Therefore, the EIA for the Current Values report should not be run more than once per hour, and the Daily Values report should not be run more than once per day.

 

The USGS Water Quality Agents or Historical Data Loader can also be run in EQuIS Professional or Enterprise (using the EZView widget) to load the data manually, without having to schedule an EIA.

 

The USGS Water Quality Current Values Agent will load Current Values for all loggers with LIVE_DATA_SOURCE set to USGS-WQ-UV, and the USGS Water Quality Daily Values Agent will load Daily Values for all loggers with LIVE_DATA_SOURCE set to USGS-WQ-DV.

 

When the report is run initially, the agent will retrieve values from a logger's site (DT_LOGGER.LOGGER_CODE) for the past one week. If data has been previously loaded for that logger, the agent will request data from the logger's most recent date (in DT_LOGGER_DATUM.DATUM_UTC_DT) until today's date.

 

The USGS Water Quality Historical Data Loader allows you to select the (UV, and/or DV) loggers and date range, and has the following input parameters:

•Logger(s) – Select the sites for which to load data. If no sites are selected, the agent will load data for all USGS Water Quality sites.

•Date Range – Select a date range; choose from recent, period, or start and end dates. The recent option works the same way as the USGS Water Quality Current Values, Daily Values, and Groundwater Levels Agents. If the period option is selected, a period must be specified in ISO-8601 duration format. If the start and end dates option is selected, start and end dates must be specified.

•Parameter Codes – Data for a subset of parameter codes can be loaded by adding them here (as a comma-separated string, e.g. 60,65). Leave this field empty to get all available parameter codes. A site's web page lists all of its available parameters, and parameter codes. See the Adding Stations section above for how to search for a site.

•Update existing values? – Check this box to update EQuIS Live data values.

 

A series can be activated or deactivated, by setting its STATUS_FLAG = "A" or "R", to start or stop (respectively) obtaining data for it. A series' SERIES_DESC and SERIES_UNIT may be changed, but not the SERIES_NAME; it uniquely identifies the series using the parameter ID from the USGS Water Quality API.