chva.extras

Supplementary Tools for Climate and Health Research in VA

chva.extras is a collection of supplementary functions and templates designed to support climate and health research in VA, including tools for data manipulation, analysis, and visualization, tailored to handle large datasets.

Citation:

Le-Huynh, T.-L., Davis, R., Novicoff, W., & DeGuzman, P. (2025). chva.extras v0.1.0: Supplementary Tools for Climate and Health Research in Virginia (v0.1.0). Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14910967

Installation

To get the latest in-development features, install the development version from GitHub:

if(!requireNamespace("devtools", quietly = TRUE)) {
 install.packages("devtools")
}
devtools::install_github("le-huynh/chva.extras")

This package is also accessible for download via Zenodo DOI 10.5281/zenodo.14910967.

Functions

See Package index for full list of functions.

1. Convert files to Parquet format

• get_parquet_arrow(): Convert multiple files to Parquet format.
• get_parquet_by_chunk(): Convert file to Parquet format by chunks.

2. Support handy workflow

• check_overview(): Provide an overview of datasets.
• check_unique_value(): Count unique values of a specified column.
• get_dataset(): Get full working datasets as a named list of Dataset R6 objects.
• recode_values(): Recode values based on grouping logic.

3. Compute indices used in climate health research

• Humidity variables: cal_absolute_humidity(), cal_dewpoint_temperature(), cal_mixing_ratio(), cal_relative_humidity(), cal_specific_humidity().
• Comfort indices: cal_apparent_temperature(), cal_humidex(), cal_temperature_humidity_index().
• cal_saturation_vapor_pressure()

4. Support visualization

• plot_contour_dlnm(): Generate a filled contour plot for DLNM output with custom color levels.

Acknowledgements

This R package was produced with support from the UVA Environmental Institute through the Strategic Investment Fund.