• bcgov/envair: BC air quality data retrieval and analysis tool
• Overview
• Installation
• Functions
• Usage and Examples
  • importBC_data()
  • listBC_stations()
  • list_parameters()
  • GET_VENTING_ECCC()
  • importECCC_forecast()
  • ventingBC_kml()

bcgov/envair: BC air quality data retrieval and analysis tool

Overview

bcgov/envair is an R package developed by the BC Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy Knowledge Management Branch/Environmental and Climate Monitoring Section (ENV/KMB/ECMS) air quality monitoring unit. Package enables R-based retrieval and processing of air quality monitoring data. Output is now compatible with the popular openair package.

Installation

You can install envair directly from this GitHub repository. To proceed, you will need the remotes package:

install.packages("remotes")

Next, install and load the envair package using remotes::install_github():

remotes::install_github("bcgov/envair")
library(envair)

Functions

• importBC_data() Retrieves station or parameter data from specified year/s between 1980 and yesterday.

  • if station is specified, output includes all parameters from that station. Output is also a compatible input to the openair package functions with scalar wind speed and vector wind direction as default ws, wd openair feed. The date is also shifted to the time-beginning format.
  • if parameter is specified, output displays data from all air quality monitoring stations that reported this data.
  • set pad = TRUE to pad missing dates, set use_ws_vector = TRUE to use vector wind speed instead of scalar, and set use_openairformat = FALSE to produce the original non-openair output.

• listBC_stations() Lists details of all air quality monitoring stations (active or inactive)

• list_parameters() Lists the parameters that can be imported by importBC_data()

• importECCC_forecast() Retrieves AQHI, PM2.5, PM10, O3, and NO2 forecasts from the ECCC datamart

• GET_VENTING_ECCC() Retrieve the venting index FLCN39 from Environment and Climate Change Canada datamart

• ventingBC_kml() Creates a kml or shape file based on the 2019 OBSCR rules. This incorporates venting index and sensitivity zones.

Usage and Examples

importBC_data()

---

Using openair package function on BC ENV data.

By default, this function produces openair-compatible dataframe output. This renames WSPD_VECT,WDIR_VECT into ws and wd, changes pollutant names to lower case characters (e.g., pm25,no2,so2), and shifts the date from time-ending to time-beginning format. To use, specify station name and year/s. For a list of stations, use listBC_stations() function. If no year is specified, function retrieves latest data, typically the unverfied data from start of year to current date.

library(openair)
PG_data <- importBC_data('Prince George Plaza 400',2010:2012)
pollutionRose(PG_data,pollutant='pm25')

Other features for station data retrieval

• To import without renaming column names, specify use_openairformat = FALSE. This also keeps date in time-ending format
• By default, vector wind direction and scalar wind speeds are used
• To use vector wind speed, use use_ws_vector = TRUE
• To pad missing dates, set pad = TRUE
• Station name is not case sensitive, and works on partial text match
• Multiple stations can be specified c(‘Prince George’,‘Kamloops’)
• For non-continuous multiple years, use c(2010,2011:2014)

importBC_data('Prince George Plaza 400',2010:2012,use_openairformat = FALSE)
importBC_data('Kamloops',2015)
importBC_data(c('Prince George','Kamloops'),c(2010,2011:2014))
importBC_data('Trail',2015,pad = TRUE)              

Retrieve parameter data

Specify parameter name to retrieve data. Note that these are very large files and may use up your computer’s resources. List of parameters can be found using the list_parameters() function.

pm25_3year <- importBC_data('PM25',2010:2012)

listBC_stations()

---

produces a dataframe that lists all air quality monitoring station details. if year is specified, it retrieves the station details from that year. Note that this entry may not be accurate since system has not been in place to generate these station details.

listBC_stations()
listBC_stations(2016)

SERIAL_CODE	EMS_ID	STATION_NAME	STATION_NAME_FULL	LOCATION	CITY	CATEGORY	STATION_ENVIRONMENT	STATION_OWNER	DATE_ESTABLISHED	NOTES	LATITUDE	LONGITUDE	HEIGHT.m.	STATUS	CGNDB
428	E289309	Abbotsford A Columbia Street	Abbotsford A Columbia Street	N/A	Abbotsford	METRO VANCOUVER	N/A	MVRD	7/25/2012	GVRD T045	49.0215	-122.3266	65	ACTIVE	N/A
429	E289309	Abbotsford A Columbia Street	Abbotsford A Columbia Street Met	N/A	Abbotsford	METRO VANCOUVER	N/A	MVRD	7/25/2012 6:28:41 AM	GVRD T045	49.0215	-122.3266	65	ACTIVE	N/A
306	0310081	Abbotsford Airport	Abbotsford Airport	2nd Avenue	Abbotsford	NON OPERATIONAL	Commercial	MVRD	1/7/1978	GVRD T011;Closed 1994-04-28	49.0306	-122.3761	40	INACTIVE	N/A
262	E246240	Abbotsford Airport Walmsley Road	Abbotsford Airport Walmsley Road	31790 Walmsley Road	Aldergrove	METRO VANCOUVER NON OPERATIONAL	Commercial	MVRD	5/1/2001	GVRD T034	49.0235	-122.3430	65	INACTIVE	N/A

list_parameters()

---

produce a vector string of available parameters that can be retrieved with importBC_data()

GET_VENTING_ECCC()

---

produces a dataframe containing the recent venting index. Optional entry of date string retrieves venting from a particular date. Archived data is dependent on ECCC’s data availability

GET_VENTING_ECCC()
GET_VENTING_ECCC('2019-11-08')

VENTING_INDEX_ABBREV	DATE_ISSUED	CURRENT_VI	CURRENT_VI_DESC	CURRENT_WSPD	CURRENT_MIX_HEIGHT	TODAY_VI	TODAY_VI_DESC	TODAY_WSPD	TODAY_MIX_HEIGHT	TOMORROW_VI	TOMORROW_VI_DESC	TOMORROW_WSPD	TOMORROW_MIX_HEIGHT	NAME	REGION	LAT	LONG
100 MILE	2019-11-08	23	POOR	20	1072	21	POOR	23	1040	23	POOR	11	1183	100 Mile House	CENTRAL INTERIOR	51.63915	-121.2945
ATLIN	2019-11-08	16	POOR	3	1169	36	FAIR	23	966	34	FAIR	16	1050	Atlin	NORTHERN BC	59.57000	-133.7000
BELLA COOLA	2019-11-08	9	POOR	5	55	16	POOR	14	134	22	POOR	8	345	Bella Coola	COAST	52.38000	-126.7500
BURNS LAKE	2019-11-08	20	POOR	17	833	26	POOR	16	915	19	POOR	19	815	Burns Lake	CENTRAL INTERIOR	54.23142	-125.7597

importECCC_forecast()

---

• Retrieves forecasts and model data from ECCC
• parameters include AQHI, PM25, NO2, O3, PM10

importECCC_forecast('no2')

ventingBC_kml()

---

• creates a kml object based on the 2019 OBSCR rules
• directory to save kml file can be specified. File will be saved in that directory as Venting_Index_HD.kml.

ventingBC_kml()
ventingBC_kml('C:/temp/')