The wikilake package provides functions to scrape the metadata tables from lake pages on Wikipedia.
install.packages("wikilake")
devtools::install_github("jsta/wikilake")
# metadata only
lake_wiki("Lake Mendota")
#> Retrieving data from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Mendota
#> Name Location Primary inflows
#> 1 Lake Mendota Dane County, Wisconsin,United States Yahara River
#> Primary outflows Catchment area Basin countries Surface area Max. depth
#> 1 Yahara River 562 km^2 United States 9740 acres 25 m
#> Residence time Shore length1 Surface elevation
#> 1 4.5 years 34.8 km 259 m
#> Frozen Lat Lon
#> 1 December 20 (average freezing date) 43.1066 -89.4247
# pretty printing metadata
knitr::kable(tidyr::gather(lake_wiki("Lake Mendota")))
#> Retrieving data from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Mendota| key | value |
|---|---|
| Name | Lake Mendota |
| Location | Dane County, Wisconsin,United States |
| Primary inflows | Yahara River |
| Primary outflows | Yahara River |
| Catchment area | 562 |
| Basin countries | United States |
| Surface area | 9740 |
| Max. depth | 25 |
| Residence time | 4.5 |
| Shore length1 | 34.8 |
| Surface elevation | 259 |
| Frozen | December 20 (average freezing date) |
| Lat | 43.1066 |
| Lon | -89.4247 |
# metadata + map
lake_wiki("Gull Lake (Michigan)", map = TRUE)
#> Retrieving data from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gull_Lake_(Michigan)
#> Name Location
#> 1 Gull Lake Kalamazoo / Barry counties, Michigan, United States
#> Primary outflows Basin countries Surface area Max. depth
#> 1 Gull Creek [1] United States 8 km^2 34 m
#> Surface elevation Lat Lon
#> 1 268 m 42.399 -85.411lake_wiki("Gull Lake (Michigan)", map = TRUE, "usa")
#> Retrieving data from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gull_Lake_(Michigan)
#> Name Location
#> 1 Gull Lake Kalamazoo / Barry counties, Michigan, United States
#> Primary outflows Basin countries Surface area Max. depth
#> 1 Gull Creek [1] United States 8 km^2 34 m
#> Surface elevation Lat Lon
#> 1 268 m 42.399 -85.411lake_wiki("Lake Nipigon", map = TRUE, regions = "Canada")
#> Retrieving data from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Nipigon
#> Name Location Primary outflows Catchment area Basin countries
#> 1 Lake Nipigon Ontario Nipigon River 25400 km^2 Canada
#> Surface area Average depth Max. depth Water volume Shore length1
#> 1 4848 km^2 54.9 m 165 m 248 km^3 1044 km
#> Surface elevation Lat Lon
#> 1 260 m 49.83 -88.5lake_wiki("Cass Lake (Michigan)", map = TRUE, "state", region = "Michigan")
#> Retrieving data from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cass_Lake_(Michigan)
#> Name Location Basin countries Surface area
#> 1 Cass Lake Oakland County, Michigan United States 1280 acres
#> Max. depth Surface elevation Lat Lon
#> 1 37 m 283 m 42.606 -83.365