pwfdf metadata¶

Synopsis¶

pwfdf metadata [options]

Description¶

Searches the PWFDF collection and returns the metadata.json info of all matching assessments. Each assessment’s metadata includes information on the fire event, assessment version, bounding box, input datasets, and implementation of the hazard models. You can find complete documentation of these metadata fields in the PWFDF Data Spec.

Example:

pwfdf metadata

Options¶

-h, --help¶: Displays the command’s help text and exits.

-t, --show-traceback¶: Shows the full traceback when an error occurs.

--failures ACTION¶

Specifies what should happen when an assessment is missing metadata.json info. Options are:

Action	Description
`error` (default)	Raises a MetadataError and exits.
`warn`	Raises a MetadataWarning, returns only the assessment’s ID, and continues to the next assessment.
`ignore`	Returns only the assessment’s ID, and continues to the next assessment.

Example:

pwfdf metadata --failures ignore

Tags¶

--fire NAME¶

The name of a fire to search. Note that the fire name is the portion of the assessment ID before the start date. A fire name must exactly match the provided text to match an assessment. Place the fire name in quotes if the name contains whitespace or punctuation.

Examples:

pwfdf metadata --fire Eaton
pwfdf metadata --fire "South Rim"

--version VERSION | MAJOR¶

A version number or major version number to search.

Examples:

# All version 1 assessments
pwfdf metadata --version 1

# Only version 1.1
pwfdf metadata --version 1.1

--latest¶

Only return the latest assessment version of matching fires.

Examples:

pwfdf metadata --latest
pwfdf metadata --version 1 --latest

Date Ranges¶

--start-date DATE | DATE RANGE¶

A date or date range in when the fire started.

Examples:

pwfdf metadata --start-date 2025
pwfdf metadata --start-date 2025-06
pwfdf metadata --start-date 2025-06-11
pwfdf metadata --start-date 2025 2027
pwfdf metadata --start-date 2025-06-15 2025-08-10

--assessment-date DATE | DATE RANGE¶

A date or date range in which the assessment was conducted.

Examples:

pwfdf metadata --assessment-date 2025
pwfdf metadata --assessment-date 2025-06
pwfdf metadata --assessment-date 2025-06-11
pwfdf metadata --assessment-date 2025 2027
pwfdf metadata --assessment-date 2025-06-15 2025-08-10

--publication-date DATE | DATE RANGE¶

A date or date range in which the assessment was published to ScienceBase.

Examples:

pwfdf metadata --publication-date 2025
pwfdf metadata --publication-date 2025-06
pwfdf metadata --publication-date 2025-06-11
pwfdf metadata --publication-date 2025 2027
pwfdf metadata --publication-date 2025-06-15 2025-08-10

Extent¶

Options for searching well-known spatial regions whose coordinates are already known by ScienceBase.

--extent NAME¶

The name of an extent (such as a state or country) to search. Place the name in quotes if it contains spaces or punctuation. Cannot be used if the --extent-id option is used.

Examples:

# Named extents
pwfdf metadata --extent California
pwfdf metadata --extent "Los Angeles, CA"
pwfdf metadata --extent "Grand Canyon National Park"

# Hydrologic unit codes
pwfdf metadata --extent 05

--extent-id ID¶

The ID of an extent to search. Cannot be used if the --extent option is used.

Example:

# Searches California
pwfdf metadata --extent-id 35

# Searches the 05 HUC-2 watershed
pwfdf metadata --extent-id 2000387

--extent-type TYPE¶

The type of extent to search. This option is usually not necessary, but can guard against searching a wrong extent with a similar name.

Tip

Use the pwfdf extents types command to obtain a list of supported types.

Example:

pwfdf metadata --extent "Los Angeles, CA" --extent-type "U.S. County"

--extent-relation RELATION¶

The spatial relationship between the extent and the search results. Options are:

Relation	Description
`intersects` (default)	Matches assessments that intersect the extent at any point.
`within`	Matches assessments that are fully contained within the extent.
`disjoint`	Matches assessments that do not intersect the extent at any point.

Example:

pwfdf metadata --extent California --extent-relation within

Geometry¶

Custom geospatial searches in which you provide the coordinates of the region to search.

--bbox PATH | "XMIN, YMIN, XMAX, YMAX"¶

A bounding box to search. Usually the path to a supported GIS file, such as a Shapefile or GeoJSON. May also be a comma-delimited, WGS-84 "XMIN, YMIN, XMAX, YMAX" coordinate sequence. If a GIS file, then the bounding box is calculated from the contained geometries.

Examples:

pwfdf metadata --bbox path/to/my/file.shp
pwfdf metadata --bbox "-121, 32, -119, 34"

--point PATH | "LON, LAT"¶

A geospatial point to search. Either a comma-delimited "LON, LAT" sequence, or the path to a supported GIS file, such as a Shapefile or GeoJSON. If a GIS file, then the point is calculated as the center of the bounding box for the contained geometries.

Examples:

pwfdf metadata --point path/to/my/file.shp
pwfdf metadata --point "-121, 32"

--geometry PATH | GEOJSON¶

A spatial geometry to search. Usually the path to a file in a supported GIS file, such as a Shapefile or GeoJSON. May also be a valid WGS-84 GeoJSON geometry string, but this syntax is generally not recommended, as it is difficult to use in practice.

In practice, only relatively coarse geometries are supported, as the geometry cannot cause the underlying query URL to exceed 2000 characters. As a rule of thumb, geometries with fewer than 100 coordinate points are expected to usually work.

Examples:

pwfdf metadata --geometry path/to/my/file.shp
pwfdf metadata --geometry "{\"type\":\"Point\",\"coordinates\":[-121, 32]}"

--geometry-relation RELATION¶

The spatial relationship between a geospatial search and the search results. Options are:

Relation	Description
`intersects` (default)	Matches assessments that intersect the geometry at any point.
`within`	Matches assessments that are fully contained within the geometry.
`disjoint`	Matches assessments that do not intersect the geometry at any point.

Example:

pwfdf metadata --bbox my-file.shp --geometry-relation intersects
pwfdf metadata --point my-file.shp --geometry-relation within
pwfdf metadata --geometry my-file.shp --geometry-relation disjoint

Geometry File IO¶

Options for reading geometries from supported vector feature file formats.

--geometry-layer NAME¶

The name of a data layer in the GIS file from which to extract the geometry. Cannot be used when the --geometry-index option is used.

Example:

pwfdf metadata --geometry my-file.geojson --geometry-layer "My Data Layer"

--geometry-index INDEX¶

The index of a data layer in the GIS file from which to extract the geometry. Cannot be used when the --geometry-layer option is used.

Example:

pwfdf metadata --geometry my-file.geojson --geometry-index 2

--geometry-driver DRIVER¶

Specifies the file format driver to use to open the geometry file. Note that the format driver is usually auto-detected from the file extension. Use this option if the geometry file uses a non-standard file extension. Refer to the first column of the geometry file formats table for a list of supported driver names.

Example:

pwfdf metadata --geometry my-file.unusual --geometry-driver Shapefile

--geometry-encoding ENCODING¶

Specifies the file encoding to use to read the geometry file. Note that the encoding is auto-detected for most formats.

Example:

pwfdf metadata --geometry my-file.shp --geometry-encoding Windows-1252

API Queries¶

Options for controlling low-level interactions with the ScienceBase API.

--max-per-query N¶

Specifies the maximum number of product records that the ScienceBase API should return per query. Note that the command may perform multiple API queries if the total number of matching assessments exceeds this number. Defaults to 500 and cannot exceed 1000.

Example:

pwfdf metadata --max-per-query 1000

--max-queries N¶

Specifies a maximum allowed number of ScienceBase API queries. Raises an error if this number is exceeded.

Example:

pwfdf metadata --max-queries 5

--timeout SECONDS¶

Specifies the maximum allowed amount of time to connect with the ScienceBase server. Raises an error if the command cannot connect in this time frame. Defaults to 15 seconds.

Example:

pwfdf metadata --timeout 60

Product Limits¶

--max-fires N¶

Specifies a maximum allowed number of fires in the search results. Raises an error if this number is exceeded.

Example:

pwfdf metadata --fire Eaton --max-fires 1

--max-assessments N¶

Specifies a maximum allowed number of assessments in the search results. Raises an error if this number is exceeded.

Example:

pwfdf metadata --fire Eaton --max-assessments 1

--max-products N¶

Specifies a maximum number of allowed product records in the ScienceBase API response. Raises an error if this number is exceeded, or skips the remaining records if the --truncate option is also provided.

Caution

Most users should not use this option. Instead, use --max-queries to limit API queries, or use --max-fires and/or --max-assessments to limit the size of the search results.

Example:

pwfdf metadata --max-products 1000

Paging¶

Low-level options for implementing custom ScienceBase paging schemes.

--offset N¶

The number of ScienceBase products to skip before retrieving search results.

Example:

pwfdf metadata --offset 50

--truncate¶

Truncates results after --max-products products, skipping all remaining products.

Example:

pwfdf metadata --max-products 50 --truncate

Logging¶

-q, --quiet¶

Do not log progress messages to the console.

Example:

pwfdf metadata -q

-v, --verbose¶

Prints more detailed progress messages to the console. (Useful for debugging).

Example:

pwfdf metadata -v

--log PATH¶

Logs detailed progress to the indicated file

Example:

pwfdf metadata --log my-file.log