eflowcalc is an open-source calculator of ecological streamflow characteristics in Python. It is licensed under GNU GPL-3.0. The package currently gives the Python scientific community access to 159 ecologically relevant streamflow characteristics inventoried by Olden and Poff (2003). A key strength of eflowcalc is the vectorisation of all calculations (using numpy, and therefore C code in the background) which makes for very efficient computation of the streamflow characteristics.
If you are using eflowcalc, please consider citing the software as follows (click on the link to get the DOI of a specific version):
Hallouin, T. (XXXX). EFlowCalc: Ecological Streamflow Characteristics Calculator (Version X.X.X). Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.2566757
Brief overview of the API
from datetime import datetime, timedelta
import numpy as np
import eflowcalc as efc
datetimes = [datetime(2010, 1, 1) + timedelta(days=d) for d in range(3652)]
streamflows = np.random.uniform(3, 50, 3652)
drainage_area = 120.7
ma41 = efc.calculator(efc.ma41, datetimes, streamflows, drainage_area)
ma41, dh4, ra7 = efc.calculator((efc.ma41, efc.dh4, efc.ra7),
datetimes, streamflows, drainage_area)Streamflow characteristics available
The streamflow characteristics currently available in eflowcalc are as follows:
- Magnitude of flow events
- Average flow events: ma1, ma2, ma3, ma4, ma5, ma6, ma7, ma8, ma9, ma10, ma11, ma12, ma13, ma14, ma15, ma16, ma17, ma18, ma19, ma20, ma21, ma22, ma23, ma24, ma25, ma26, ma27, ma28, ma29, ma30, ma31, ma32, ma33, ma34, ma35, ma36, ma37, ma38, ma39, ma40, ma41, ma42, ma43, ma44, ma45
- Low flow events: ml1, ml2, ml3, ml4, ml5, ml6, ml7, ml8, ml9, ml10, ml11, ml12, ml13, ml14, ml15, ml16, ml17, ml18, ml19, ml20, ml21, ml22
- High flow events: mh1, mh2, mh3, mh4, mh5, mh6, mh7, mh8, mh9, mh10, mh11, mh12, mh13, mh14, mh15, mh16, mh17, mh18, mh19, mh20, mh21, mh22, mh23
- Frequency of flow events
- Low flow events: fl1, fl2, fl3
- High flow events: fh1, fh2, fh3, fh4, fh5, fh6, fh7, fh8, fh9, fh10
- Duration of flow events
- Low flow events: dl1, dl2, dl3, dl4, dl5, dl6, dl7, dl8, dl9, dl10, dl11, dl12, dl13, dl14, dl15, dl16, dl17, dl18, dl19, dl20
- High flow events: dh1, dh2, dh3, dh4, dh5, dh6, dh7, dh8, dh9, dh10, dh11, dh12, dh13, dh14, dh15, dh16, dh17, dh18, dh19, dh20, dh21
- Timing of flow events
- Average flow events: ta1, ta2
- Low flow events: tl1, tl2
- High flow events: th1, th2
- Rate of change in flow events
- Average flow events: ra1, ra2, ra3, ra4, ra5, ra6, ra7, ra8, ra9
Note
The computations implemented in eflowcalc are partially inspired by the work of Henriksen et al. (2006), however eflowcalc is neither endorsed by these authors nor by the U.S. Geological Survey.
Acknowledgement
Early versions of this tool were developed with the financial support of Ireland's Environmental Protection Agency (Grant Number 2014-W-LS-5).