Visualising the time series predictions from a hydro-ecological model

The plot_predictions function produces a time series plot of predictions from a hydro-ecological model, alongside observed biology and flow data. The plot is faceted by site, as specified by the site_col argument. The function generates a ggplot object, that is optionally saved as a .png file named "Predictions_Plot.png".

Usage

plot_predictions(data, biol_metric, time_col, site_col, flow_stat, pred_col, ncol = 4, save = FALSE, save_dir = getwd())

Arguments

data: Data to plot, containing observed biology and flow data as well as model predictions.
biol_metric: Name of column containing measured data for the biology metric of interest.
time_col: Name of column containing time variable for x-axis.
site_col: Name of column containing biology site ID, for faceting. Default = "biol_site_id".
flow_stat: Names of up to two flow statistics of interest.
pred_col: Names of columns containing central predictions (required) and lower and upper confidence or prediction intervals (optional). The lower and upper limits are optional but both must be specified (not just a lower or upper limit).
ncol: Number of columns to use in facet plots. Default = 4.
save: Logical value specifying whether or not the output should also be saved as a png file. Default = FALSE.
save_dir: Path to folder where png files are to be saved. Default = Current working directory.

Value

The function returns a single ggplot object.

Examples

# Generate a plot of predictions from a hydro-ecological model, alongside observed biology and flow data, and save a png file to a sub-folder of the working directory called 'outputs'.
# plot_predictions(data = autumn_data,
#                  biol_metric = "LIFE_F_OE",
#                  time_col = "Year",
#                  site_col = "biol_site_id",
#                  flow_stat = c("Q95z", "Q10z"),
#                  pred_col = c("fit", "lwr", "upr"),
#                  ncol = 4)