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Data Transfer and Format

GRDC calls for the provision of data in digital formats on a machine readable media. Ideally there should be separate files per station for daily and monthly data. The discharge values should be given in cubic metre per second [cbm/s], missing values should be marked as –999.000. The data files should be delivered in standard text (DOS ASCII) or MS-Excel format (*.xls).

GRDC would appreciate if data will be provided in a format as follows (GRDC Data Format):

  • names of the river and the station in separate lines with uppercase letters
  • complete date following the ISO 8601 standard (YYYY-MM-DD)
  • discharge value with ten digits
  • expand each month to 31 days using –10.000 or –999.000 as non-available value
  • use spaces as column separator
  • Example for a daily data file :
    CONGO
    BRAZZAVILLE
    1978-01-01 1860.000
    1978-01-02 1865.000
    1978-01-03 –999.000
    :
    1978-02-30 -10.000
    :

GRDC uses the WISKI software to import, manage and export timeseries of river discharge data. Should you also use WISKI software, we would appreciate if you could provide your data in a WISKI format such as the ZRX-format.

Metadata are welcome in whatever form it can be provided. Digital formats (e.g. Excel lists) are preferred. If metadata are not available in digital format, please do not make extra efforts, just send then analogue data.

GRDC prefers the online data transfer via e-mail, FTP or HTTP. Of course, CDs, diskettes or rarely even printed media sent by postal mail are also welcome. The most widely used method of transfer is via e-mail to GRDC's general account (grdc@bafg.de). Please keep in mind the limitation of size (20 MB) for attachments in our Institute. For regular data delivery, the upload of data to an agreed FTP site is preferred. An individual account will be created by GRDC on request. To specify the transfer details (provider identifier, naming convention, account, password, etc.) please contact us. Alternatively, data can be provided via an HTTP address (web link). This address ideally should not change.

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