Introduction
The UK CEH Lake Portal is a GIS-based inventory of information about more than 40000 lakes across the UK. The information available for each lake varies, but includes basic physical description, typology and other information.
The uklakes package allows you to retrieve a summary of
the lake information for a lake or series of lakes, based on the lake
wbid (waterbody id) number. It does this by responsibly webscraping the
information polite
package) from the webpage of each lake as the website does not
provide an API or any easy way to extract the data returned. You can
also search for lake wbid values based on strings in the lake name to
determine the wbids to search for.
Information on the general physical characteristics, typology, chemistry and connectivity metrics are retrieved. Biology, land cover and water quality information are not. For details of the information available, see the UK Lakes Portal Website, or the output reference list.
Use of the package implies acceptance of the Terms of Use available here.
Functions
Search for wbid numbers
The search_lake function allows you to search a listing
of all the lakes within the portal, based on a string provided. It will
return a dataframe containing the name and wbid number of all the lakes
that contain (full or partial match, case sensitive) the string
provided. Note that most of the lakes within the portal (particularly
the small ones) do not have a name (76% of total).
library(uklakes)
all_tarns <- search_lake("Tarn")
nrow(all_tarns)
#> [1] 140
# 140 Tarns in the portal database
# first six tarns in the list
head(all_tarns)
#> Name wbid Country Easting Northing
#> 1 Tarnie Loch 23031 Scotland 365150 754370
#> 2 Talkin Tarn 28386 England 354540 558750
#> 3 Tindale Tarn 28395 England 360520 558710
#> 4 Martin Tarn 28561 England 325790 551540
#> 5 Tarns Dub 28651 England 311530 547380
#> 6 Greencastle Tarn 28736 England 369770 539940
search_lake("Leven")
#> Name wbid Country Easting Northing
#> 1 Loch of Levenwick 1567 Scotland 441350 1119860
#> 2 Loch Leven 18194 Scotland 294670 842540
#> 3 Loch Leven 24843 Scotland 314720 701460
# two Loch Levens and one Loch of LevenwickThe wbid column of the dataframe returned can be used as input to the data retrieval function (see below for examples).
Get a summary of information for a lake or lakes
The get_lake_info function retrieves the available
information for a lake or lakes, based on the wbid numbers provided.
Wbid numbers can be passed to the function as a single integer, a series of integer values, a sequence of values, a vector of values (either as a specific object or as a column of a dataframe) or a combination of these. See examples below.
# some small lakes in Shetland
get_lake_info(4, 6, 1232:1234)
#> Scraping lake wbid 4
#> Scraping lake wbid 6
#> Scraping lake wbid 1232
#> Scraping lake wbid 1233
#> Scraping lake wbid 1234
#> wbid Name Grid_reference Easting Northing Elevation_type Size_type
#> 1 4 Sothers Brecks HP60551629 460550 1216290 Low elevation Very small
#> 2 6 unnamed HP67201542 467200 1215420 Low elevation Very small
#> 3 1232 unnamed HU26195455 426190 1154550 Low elevation Very small
#> 4 1233 unnamed HU27475458 427470 1154580 Low elevation Very small
#> 5 1234 Restna Lochs HU20375453 420370 1154530 Low elevation Very small
#> Depth_type Geology_type Humic_type Surface_area
#> 1 Very shallow Unavailable (no data) Unavailable (no data) 0
#> 2 Very shallow Unavailable (no data) Unavailable (no data) 0
#> 3 Shallow High alkalinity Unavailable (no data) 4
#> 4 Very shallow Unavailable (no data) Unavailable (no data) 0
#> 5 Shallow High alkalinity Unavailable (no data) 2
#> Elevation Perimeter_length Shoreline_development_index Fetch_distance
#> 1 122 0 1.04 0.05
#> 2 18 0 1.05 0.04
#> 3 38 1 1.50 0.38
#> 4 47 0 1.05 0.09
#> 5 146 1 1.08 0.23
#> Distance_to_sea Mean_depth Catchment_area Water_body_volume
#> 1 0.65 NA NA NA
#> 2 0.04 NA NA NA
#> 3 1.92 3.4 23 123516
#> 4 1.31 NA NA NA
#> 5 2.50 3.7 24 90444
#> Catchment-to-lake_ratio Catchment_mean_elevation Catchment_mean_slope
#> 1 NA NA NA
#> 2 NA NA NA
#> 3 6.4 42.61 2.47
#> 4 NA NA NA
#> 5 9.9 153.80 2.72
#> Catchment_pond_area Catchment_strahler_1_length Catchment_strahler_2_length
#> 1 NA NA NA
#> 2 NA NA NA
#> 3 4.08 519.41 132.69
#> 4 NA NA NA
#> 5 NA 590.66 152.94
#> 2km_buffer_river_length 2km_buffer_lakes_perimeter 2km_buffer_ponds_perimeter
#> 1 NA NA NA
#> 2 NA NA NA
#> 3 24979.54 135452.50 12586.71
#> 4 NA NA NA
#> 5 32894.07 10388.93 817.48
#> Catchment_lake_area
#> 1 NA
#> 2 NA
#> 3 NA
#> 4 NA
#> 5 8.9
# the first 5 lakes containing 'Tarn' in the database
all_tarns <- search_lake("Tarn")
get_lake_info(all_tarns$wbid[1:5])
#> Scraping lake wbid 23031
#> Scraping lake wbid 28386
#> Scraping lake wbid 28395
#> Scraping lake wbid 28561
#> Scraping lake wbid 28651
#> wbid Name Grid_reference Easting Northing Elevation_type Size_type
#> 1 23031 Tarnie Loch NO65155437 365150 754370 Low elevation Very small
#> 2 28386 Talkin Tarn NY54545875 354540 558750 Low elevation Small
#> 3 28395 Tindale Tarn NY60525871 360520 558710 Mid elevation Small
#> 4 28561 Martin Tarn NY25795154 325790 551540 Low elevation Very small
#> 5 28651 Tarns Dub NY11534738 311530 547380 Low elevation Very small
#> Depth_type Geology_type Humic_type Marl_water_body
#> 1 Very shallow Unavailable (no data) Unavailable (no data) FALSE
#> 2 Shallow Marl lake Unavailable (no data) TRUE
#> 3 Very shallow Moderate alkalinity Humic FALSE
#> 4 Shallow High alkalinity Unavailable (no data) FALSE
#> 5 Shallow High alkalinity Unavailable (no data) FALSE
#> Surface_area Elevation Perimeter_length Shoreline_development_index
#> 1 0 121 0 1.29
#> 2 25 128 2 1.17
#> 3 25 214 2 1.25
#> 4 5 18 1 1.06
#> 5 8 18 1 1.06
#> Fetch_distance Distance_to_sea Mean_depth Maximum_depth Catchment_area
#> 1 0.11 3.61 NA NA NA
#> 2 0.77 18.35 5.0 12.5 106
#> 3 0.87 24.11 1.9 4.2 804
#> 4 0.28 4.41 5.0 NA 32
#> 5 0.36 2.95 5.1 NA 83
#> Water_body_volume Catchment-to-lake_ratio Catchment_mean_elevation
#> 1 NA NA NA
#> 2 1274563 4.1 141.66
#> 3 474201 32.4 376.98
#> 4 243692 6.5 22.56
#> 5 436432 9.7 31.22
#> Catchment_mean_slope Catchment_strahler_1_length 2km_buffer_river_length
#> 1 NA NA NA
#> 2 2.80 166.04 21784.86
#> 3 9.62 6750.08 18732.34
#> 4 1.78 303.90 22983.18
#> 5 2.42 NA 16673.16
#> Mean_alkalinity Mean_conductivity Catchment_strahler_2_length
#> 1 NA NA NA
#> 2 681 121 NA
#> 3 892 140 3472.66
#> 4 NA NA 149.75
#> 5 NA NA NA
#> Catchment_strahler_4_plus_length Catchment_obstacles_count Mean_colour
#> 1 NA NA NA
#> 2 NA NA NA
#> 3 19.84 4 51
#> 4 NA NA NA
#> 5 54.38 NA NA
#> Mean_dissolved_organic_carbon 2km_buffer_canals_length
#> 1 NA NA
#> 2 NA NA
#> 3 6.37 NA
#> 4 NA 46
#> 5 NA NAThe range of information provided varies widely between lakes. Basic physical description and typology information are always returned. For a full listing of the possible columns see the output reference listing.