DOI: 10.48488/pv2p-ka60
title: Surface water quality data from the VESLA information system

description: Syke manages the physio-chemical monitoring data collected from Finnish waters by Finnish environmental authorities and other organizations. Regular monitoring is performed at about 5000 stations. In addition, the dataset includes observations made at other sampling points. These materials are part of Syke’s open data services (CC BY 4.0 Attribution). The required attribution (source for the data) shall be: Finnish Environment Institute and Centers for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment (ELY Centers). More details about the license are available here: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.en

Full metadata description for the system is provided here (in Finnish only): 
https://ckan.ymparisto.fi/dataset/pintavesien-tilan-tietojarjestelma-vedenlaatu-vesla 

The purpose of this metadata is to provide information on how to access the data through the services provided by the AquaINFRA project (https://aquainfra.eu/). The Data Discovery and Access System (DDAS) of AquaINFRA has been linked to the OData interface of VESLA database (https://rajapinnat.ymparisto.fi/api/vesla/2.0/). The data can be accessed with a link in the following format:

https://vm4072.kaj.pouta.csc.fi/ddas/oapif/collections/fin_sykewaterquality/items/3158?f=json&datetime=2023-03-01T00:00:00Z/2023-09-20T00:00:00Z&keywords=Turbidity;1.0

The parameters/fields of the link can be modified and are the following:

3158 	– Station ID. See the link below how to find the number for the station of interest.

f=json 	– Output format (GeoJSON as default)

datetime=2023-03-01T00:00:00Z/2023-09-20T00:00:00Z – Start and end dates of the selected time period

keywords=Turbidity – Selected parameter. There are several options. See the link below.

1.0 	– Depth of the observation (in meters below surface). Some stations include observations from several depths.

The available stations and parameters can be browsed with this map interface:

https://vm4072.kaj.pouta.csc.fi/ddas/oapif/collections/fin_sykewaterquality/items

Modify the input fields, zoom into the map and available stations will appear. You can see the data by clicking the station number in the upper part of the page:

Home / Collections / SYKE Water quality / Items / 3158

In the result page, click the link named “This document as GeoJSON” to get the GeoJSON version of the data. This can then be accesses by Galaxy.

As another example, this link provides Temperature values of a station without defining depth layer information:

https://vm4072.kaj.pouta.csc.fi/ddas/oapif/collections/fin_sykewaterquality/items/3158?f=json&datetime=2024-02-01T00:00:00Z/2024-07-31T00:00:00Z&keywords=Temperature;[object%20HTMLInputElement]

Values from all depth layers are thus included.

This link provides Chlorophyll-a values:

https://vm4072.kaj.pouta.csc.fi/ddas/oapif/collections/fin_sykewaterquality/items/3158?f=json&datetime=2024-02-02T00:00:00Z/&keywords=Chlorophyll%20a;[object%20HTMLInputElement] 

In this case the depth layer is a composite from 0 to 4 m.


AquaINFRA-project has received funding from the European Commission’s Horizon Europe Research and Innovation programme under grant agreement No 101094434. The information and views of this website lie entirely with the authors. The European Commission is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains.